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DARING AND SUFFERING 



A HISTORY OF 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 



BY LIEUT. WILLIAM PITTEXGER, 

ONE OF THE ADVENTURERS. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION, 

BY REV. ALEXANDER CLARK. 



"The expedition, in the daring of its conception, had the wildness of a 
romance; while in the gigantic and overwhelming results it sought and was 
likely to accomplish, it was absolutely sublime." — Official Report of Hon. 
Judge Holt to the Secretary of War. 



•'Itwas all the deepest laid scheme, and on the grandest scale, that ever 
emanated from the brains of any number of Yankees combined."— ^^^anta 
•• Southern Confederacy" of April I5th, 1862. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
W. DAUGHADAY, PUBLISHER, 

1308 CHESTNUT STREET. 

1863. 






Capy_' 47 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by 

J. W. DAUGIIADAY, 

In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



R. T. TRALL, M. D., 

EDITOR OF THE "HERALD OF HEALTH," 
AND 

THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 
AS A TRIBUTE OF 

ESTEEM AND GRATITUDE, 

BY 

THE A-UXHOK. 

New Somerset, Jcffe'son Co., 0., 
October, 1863. 



NAMES OF THE ADVENTURERS, 



EXECUTED. 



J. J. Andrews, Leader, 
William Campbell, 
George D. Wilson, Co. B, 
Marion A. Ross, Co. A, 

Perry G. Shadrack, Co. K, 
Samuel Slavens, 
Samuel Robinson, Co. G, 

John Scott, Co. K, 



Citizen of Kentucky. 
Citizen of Kentucky. 
Second Reg't Ohio Vols. 
Second Reg't Ohio Vols. 
Second Reg't Ohio Vols. 
Thirty-third Reg't Ohio Vols. 
Thirty-third Reg't Ohio Vols. 
Twenty-first Reg't Ohio Vols. 



ESCAPED TN OCTOBEB. 



W. W. BrowN, 
William Knight, 
J. R. Porter, 
Mark Wood, 
J. A. Wilson, 
M. J. Hawkins, 
John Wollam, 
D. A. Dorse Y, 



Co. F, 
Co. E, 
Co. C, 
Co. C, 



Co. 
Co. 
Co. 
Co. 



Twenty-first Reg't 
Twenty-first Reg't 
Twenty-first Reg't 
Twenty-first Reg't 
Twenty-first Reg't 
Thirty-third Reg't 
Thirty-third Reg"t 
Thirty-third Reg't 



Ohio Vols. 
Ohio Vols. 
Ohio Vols. 
Ohio Vols. 
Ohio Vols. 
Ohio Vols. 
Ohio Vols. 
Ohio Vols. 



EXCHANGED IW MARCH. 



Jacob Parrott, Co. K, 

Robert Buffum, Co. H, 

William Bensinger, Co. G, 

William Reddick, Co. B, 

E. H. Mason, Co. K, 

William Pittengbr, Co. G, 



Thirty-third Reg't Ohio Vols. 
Twenty-first Reg't Ohio Vols. 
Twenty -first Reg't Ohio Vols. 
Thirty-third Reg't Ohio Vols. 
Twenty.first Reg't Ohio Vols. 
Second Reg't Ohio Vols. 



PEEFACE 



The following work is a narration of facts. My 
only desire is to give a clear and connected record 
of what will ever be regarded as a most remarkable 
episode in the history of the Great Rebellion. 

The style of the book demands an apology. It 
was begun in sickness induced by the privations 
of rebel prisons, and completed amidst the fatigue 
and excitement of the most glorious campaign which 
has yet crowned our arms. Under these circum- 
stances, there must be many faults of expression, 
which a generous reader will readily pardon. 

To the many kind friends who sympathized witli 
me during the weary interval when my fate was con- 
sidered hopeless, as well as those who rejoiced with 
me on my return, I can only tender my most sin- 
cere thanks. 

Myself and comrades are greatly indebted to the 
President and Secretary Stanton for their gene- 
rous recognition of our services, and the munificent 
rewards bestowed upon us. To them, and to Judge 
Holt, Major-Gcneral Hitchcock, and James C. 
Wetmore, Ohio State Military Agent, we take this 
opportunity of expressing our heartfelt obligations. 
1* (6) " 



6 PKEFACE. 

Another to whom I am indebted is Dr. R. T. 
Trall of New York. At his beautiful " Hygiean 
Home,^^ on the mountain side, near Wernersville, 
Berks county, Pennsylvania, I regained my lost 
health. For his kindness, and that of his skillful 
assistants, Drs. Glass and Fairchild, I will ever 
be deeply grateful. It was with regret, woven with 
many pleasant memories, that I left their hospita- 
ble home when recovered health and duty called 
me again to the field. 

To my early friend, Rev. Alexander Clark, 
Editor of the " School Visitor,''^ I am still more 
deeply indebted. His literary experience was freely 
placed at my service, and when discouraged in the 
preparation of my story, which was to me an ardu- 
ous undertaking, his words of hope and cheer stimu- 
lated me to renewed efforts. But for aid derived 
from his sympathy and advice, I would have proba- 
bly abandoned my task. May he be fully rewarded I 

There are a host of others whose good offices will 
always be kindly remembered. Among them are 
W. R. Allison of the ''Steubenville Herald,''^ Dr. 
John McCook, also of Steubenville, Dr. George 
McCooK of Pittsburgh, Rev. William B. Wat- 
kins, A. M., Dr. John Mills, and many others. 
Thanks to them all ! 

WILLIAM PITTENGER. 

Army of the Cumberland^ August^ 1863. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTBB I. 

Sad Retrospective — Object of the Book — Military Situation 
in the Southwest — Disaster and Energy of the Rebels — 
Necessity for a Secret Expedition — A Proposition to 
Buell and Mitchel — An Attempt and Failure — Return of 
Adventurers — Second Expedition — Writer Volunteers — 
Andrews, the Leader — Parting from the Regiment — On 
the Way — Perplexities — The Writer Cur-tailed ! 

23—35 



CHAPTER 11. 

Midnight Consultation — Plans Developed — Money Distri- 
buted — Compagnons du Voyage — A Dismal Night — Shel- 
tered from the Storm — Southern Unionist — Arrested by 
Federal Soldiers — Beyond the Lines — Panic Caused by 
Negroes — Method of Avoiding Suspicion — Continuous 
Rain — Behind Time — Hunting Human Beings with 
Bloodhounds — The Cumberland Mountaina — Rain again. 

36—45 

0) 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

Crossing the Mountains — Playing Hypocrite — Legend of 
Battle Creek Valley — Lodged with a Secessionist — 
Strategy— A Welcome but Fatal Delay — Exaggerated 
Accounts of Shiloli — Prevented from Crossing the Ten- 
nessee — In the Mountains again — Amusing Rebel Story 
— To the River again — Perilous Crossing — Success — 
Chattanooga — On the Cars — Night — Arrive at Marietta. 

46—56 



CHAPTER IV. " 

Take an Early Train — Prospecting — Capture of the Train 
— Panic in Confederate Camp — Away at Lightning 
Speed — Thrilling Exj)erience — Cut the Telegraph— Tear 
up the Track — Unexpected Obstacle — Running a Powder 
Train to Beauregard— Red Flag — Dropping Cross-Ties — 
Battering out Spikes — Immense Exertion of Strength — 
Pursuing Backward — Terrible Chase — Attempt to Wreck 
the Enemy's Train— Fearful Speed— Bold Plan. 57—67 



CHAPTER V. 

Consternation along the Route — Wood and Watpr — At- 
tempt to Fire the Train — Partial Failure — Message sent 
to Chattanooga — Terrific Preparations — Abandon tlio 
Train — A Capital Error — In tiie Woods — A Thrilling 
Account of the Chase from the Atlanta '^Southern Con- 
federacy.'' 68—90 



CONTENTS 9 

CHAPTEK VI. 

Stux)endous "Man Hunt" — My Own Adventures — Playing 
Acrobat — Perilous Crossing of a River — Hunger — The 
Bloodhounds — Flying for Life — No Sun or Star to Guide 
me — Traveling in a Circle — Nearijig Chattanooga — Lost 
in Deadened Timber — Glimpse of the Moon — Fatigue 
produces Phantoms — Dreadful Storm — I Sleep and enter 
Fairy Land— Glorious Visions — Reality — A Picket — Ro- 
mance Faded — Horrible Situation — Day Dawn — No Re- 
lief. 91—105 



CHAPTEE YII. 

Sabbath — Continuous Rain — Press Onward — Observed — 
Arrested — Curious Examination — Equivocating for Life 
— Plans Foiled by Unexpected News— Plundered — Jail — 
Terrible Reflections — New and Hopeful Resolve — Un- 
welcome Visitors — Vigilance Committee Disappointed 
— Ordered to Chattanooga — A Mob — Chained to the 
Carriage — Escort — The Journey — Musings — Arrival — 
Another Mob — Benevolent Gentleman (?) — General 
Leadbetter— Andrews. 106—126 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

Negro Prison — Swims, the Jailor — Horrible Dungeon — 
Black Hole of Calcutta — Sufi"ocation — Union Prisoners 
— Slave Catching — Our Party Reunited — Breakfast Low- 
ered by Rope — Hunger — Counseling — Fiendish Barba- 
rity — Chained in the Dungeon — Andrews tried as a Spy 
and Traitor — Sweet, but Stolen News — Removed from 
Dungeon — Pure Air and Sunlight — Attacked by a Mob 
— "A Friend" — Madison — Daring Adventure and Nar- 
row Ebcape. 127—147 



10 CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Return to Chattanooga — Caution of Rebels — Unchain Our- 
selves—Mock Trials — The Judge — Singing— One Kind- 
ness — Projected Escape — Loitering Comrades — A Gleam 
of Hope — Sad Parting — Knoxville — Prison Inmates — 
Brownlow — Awful Cruelty — Andrews Condemned to 
Death — Escapes with Wollam — Fearful Perils — Swim- 
ming the River — Hiding on an Island — Found by Chil- 
dren — Yields to His Fate — Horrible Death — Wollam's 
Stratagem — On the River — Passes a Gun Boat — Final 
Capture. 148—170 



CHAPTER X. 

Sorrow for Andrews — Prepare for Trial — Charges and 
Specifications — Plan of Defence — Incidents of Trial — 
Encouragement — Not Allowed to Hear Pleading — Law- 
yer's Plea — Seven Tried — Mitchel Dissolves the Court — 
Tied Again — A Saucy Reply — Advantage of Sickness — 
Fry Deceived — Revolting Inhumanity — Fry's Capture — 
Starve to Atlanta — Taunts of the Mob — Atlanta Prison 
—A Kind Jailor. 171—183 



CHAPTER XI. 

Cavalry Approach— Seven Removed from the Room — Sus- 
pense — Sentence of Death — Heart-rending Separation — 
Death and the Future — Not Prepared — Inhuman Haste 
— The Tragedy — Speech on the Scaffold — Breaking Ropes 
— Enemies Affected— Gloom of Survivors — Prayer. 

184—192 



CONTKNTS 11 



CHAPTEE XII. 

Religious Experience — Coiitrabaud Assistance — Intelli- 
gence of Negroes — Love of Freedom — Wollam's Recap- 
ture — A Friendly Preacher — Obtain Books — Disgusting 
Diet — Plays — Debates — Reading Hours — Envy the Birds 
— Dreams of Home — Telegraphing — Friends from our 
Army — Hope Deferred — Union Society — Difficulties of 
Tobacco-chewers — Precious Books. 193 — 207 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Contemplated Escape — Startling Intelligence — Our Doom 
Pronounced from Richmond — Hesitate no Longer — Our 
Plan — All Ready — Supper — Farewell — Life or Death — 
Seize the Jailor — Gruns Wrested from Guards — Alarm 
Given — Scaling the Wall — Guards Fire — Terrible Chase 
— Six Recaptured — Wood and Wilson Reach the Gulf — 
Dorsey's Narrative — Porter's Account — Boasting of the 
Guards— Barlow's Cruel Death. 208—223 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Despair and Hope — Bitten Finger — Removed to Barracks 
— Greater Comfort — Jack Wells— Cruel Punishment of 
Tennesseeans — Story of a Spy — Help Him to Escape — 
Virtue of a Coat — A Practical Joke — Unionism — Sweet 
Potatoes — Enlisting in Rebel Army — Description of a 
Day— Happy News— Start for Richmond— Not Tied— 
Night Journey — Varied Incidents — Lynchburg — Rebel 
Audacity Punished — Suffering from the Cold — Arrival 
in Richmond. 224—246 



12 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE XY. 

The City by Moonlight — Old Accusation Renewed — Libby 
Prison — Discomfort — A Change— Citizens' Department 
— Richmond Breakfast — Removed under Guard — Castle 
Thunder — Miniature Bedlam — Conceal a Knife — Con- 
fined in a Stall — Dreadful Gloom — Routine of a Day — 
Suifering at Night — Friends Exchanged — Newspapers — 
Burnside — Pecuniary Perplexities — Captain Webster — 
Escape Prevented — Try Again on Christmas Night — 
Betrayed— Fearful Danger Avoided. 247—266 



CHAPTEE XYI. 

Letter sent Home — Alarming Pestilence — Our Quarters 
Changed — Rowdyism — Fairy Stories — Judge Baxter — 
Satanic Strategy — Miller's History — An Exchange with a 
Dead Man — Effect of Democratic Victories — Attempt to 
Make us Work — Digging out of a Cell — Worse than the 
Inquisition — Unexpected Interference — List from " Yan- 
kee Land" — Clothing Stolen — Paroled — A Night of Joy — 
Torch-light March— On the Cars— The Boat— Reach 
Washington — Receive Medals, Money, and Promotion — 
Home. 267—288 



INTRODUCTION, 



While our absent brothers are battling on the 
field, it is becoming tbat the friends at home 
should be eager for the minutest particulars of 
the camp-life, courage and endurance of the 
dear boys far away ; for to the loyal lover of 
his country every soldier is a brother. 

The narrative related on the following pages 
is one of extraordinary ''daring and suffering," 
and will excite an interest in the public mind 
such as has rarely, if ever, arisen from any per- 
sonal adventures recorded on the page of 
history. 

William Pittenger, the oldest of a nu- 
merous family, was born in Jefferson county, 
Ohio, January 81st, 1840. His father, Thomas 
Pittenger, is a farmer, and trains his children 
in the solid experiences of manual labor. His 
mother is from a thinking familyhood of peo- 
ple, many of whom are well known in Eastern 
2 (13) 



14 INTRODUCTION, 

Ohio as pioneers in social and moral progress 
— the Mills's. William learned to love his' 
country about as early as he learned to love 
his own mother ; for his first lessons were loy- 
alty and liberty, syllabled by a mother's lips. 
Even before the boy could read, he knew in 
outline the history of our nation's trials and 
triumphs, from the days of Bunker Hill, 
forward to the passing events of the latest 
newspaper chronicling, — all of which facts 
were nightly canvassed around the cabin - 
hearth. 

Although he was an adept in all branches of 
learning, yet, in school days, as now, young 
PiTTENGER had two favorite studies ; and they 
happened to be the very ones in the prosecu- 
tion of which his teachers could aid him scarcely 
at all — History and Astronomy. But, in the 
face of discouragement, with the aid only of 
accidental helps, and by the candle-light and 
the star-light after the sunny hours had been 
toiled away, he pressed patiently and perse- 
veringly forward in his own chosen methods, 
until he became an accurate historian, and a 
practical astronomer. At the age of seventeen, 
he manufactured, for the most part with his 
own hands, a reflecting telescope, which his 
friends came from near and far to see, and 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

gaze through at the wonderful worlds un- 
thought-of before. 

The ambitions of farm-life were not sufficient 
to occupy the head and hands of this searcher 
for knowledge. To explore the fields of the 
firmament with his telescope, gave him intenser 
pleasure than the most faithful farmer ever real- 
ized from furrowing his fields in the dewiest 
spring mornings. To follow the footsteps of 
heroes through the world's annals, as they 
struggled up through conflicts to glorious lib- 
erty, thrilled him with a livelier enthusiasm 
than ever sprang from the music of marching 
harvesters. While other young men of his 
age and neighborhood idled their rainy days 
and winter nights in trifling diversions, there 
was one who preferred the higher joy of com- 
munion with Humboldt in his " Cosmos," 
Macaulay in his '^ England," Irving in his 
" Columbus," or Burritt in his " Geography of 
the Heavens." 

Owing to this decided preference for science 
and literatui'e, the father found it advisable to 
indulge his son in the desire to enter a field 
more consonant with his wishes. He accord- 
ingly qualified himself, by close study at home, 
and without a tutor, for the profession of teach- 
ing. In this honorable avocation he labored 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

with industry and promise, until he felt con- 
strained by love of country to quit the desk 
and the children, for the tent and the hosts of 
armed men. 

During his career as teacher, he was, for 
awhile, associated with the writer in the publica- 
tion of the School Visitor, then issued at Cleve- 
land, Ohio. The enterprise was, at that time, 
(1857-8,) to the great outer world, an unno- 
ticed and insignificant one ; yet to those whose 
little all was enlisted in the mission of a Day 
School paper, it was, indeed, something that lay 
close upon their hearts. That was a cheerless, 
friendless time in the history of the little 
VisitoTj to at least two inexperienced adven- 
turers in the literary world. But these were 
hidden trials, and shall be unwritten still. 

The never-forgotten teachings of his mother, 
together with the unconscious tuition result- 
ing from observation and experience, made PiT- 
TENGER an early and constant friend of freedom. 
Any mind imbued with an admiration of God's 
marches in the Heavens as an Omnipotent 
Creator, and inspired by a contemplation of 
God's finger in History as a merciful Deliverer, 
Avill rise to the high level of universal love to 
man, and will comprehend the broad equality 
of Gospel liberty and republican brotherhood. 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

Let a man be educated, head and heart, and 
he will love freedom, and demand freedom, 
and " dare and suffer" for freedom, not for him- 
self only, but for all the oppressed of the whole 
earth. 

Eeader, you may draw lines. You may pro- 
fess a conservative Christianity that would theo- 
logize the very grace out of the command, 
" Love thy neighbor as thyself.''^ You may ignore 
this Christ-like precept, and adopt something 
more fashionable and aristocratic ; but if you 
do, you entertain in your heart treason, both to 
your Father in heaven and to your brother on 
earth. This law of love is revealed to lowly 
men. It cuts down through crowns and creeds 
and chains, and rests as a blessed benediction 
on sufferers and slaves. This is the inspiration 
that brings victory to our arms, and deals death 
to destroyers. This was the spirit that prompted 
our young hero to stand forth, one of the very 
first from his native county, a soldier for right 
and righteousness, the moment the Sumter cry 
rang up the valley of his Ohio home. 

When PiTTiNGER became a volunteer, it was 
for the suppression of the Rebellion with all its 
belongings, — and if its overthrow should tumble 
slavery, with its clanking fetters and howling 
hounds, to the uttermost destruction, he would 
2* 



18 INTRODUCTIOK". 

grasp his gun the firmer for the hope, and 
thank God for the prospect, the test, and the 
toil ! He enlisted as a soldier for his country, 
ready to march anywhere, strike with any 
weapon, endure any fatigue, or share any sor- 
row. He went out not merely an armored war- 
rior, to ward off attacks, not to strike off ob- 
noxious top-growths ; but to " lay the ax at the 
root of the tree," and to pierce the very heart of 
the monster iniquity. 

In three days after the receipt of the startling 
intelligence that the Stars and Stripes had been 
fired upon by rebels in arms, Pittenger was on 
his way to the Capital as a private soldier in the 
Second Ohio Regiment of volunteers. He 
fought bravely on the disastrous 21st of July, in 
the battle of Bull Run, while many of his com- 
rades fell bleeding at his side. For his calm, 
heroic conduct throughout that memorable day 
of peril and panic, he received the highest praise 
from every of&cer of his regiment. ^Ithough 
thus a sharer of war's sternest conflicts during 
the three months' campaign, he was ready to 
re-enlist immediately, when his country called 
for a longer service ; and after a few days' rest 
beneath the old homestead roof, he was again on 
his way with the same regiment to the seat of war 
in the Southwest. 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

During the fall and winter he saw severe ser- 
vice on the '^ dark and bloody ground." No 
soldiers ever endured so many midnight marches 
more patiently, or manifested more self-sacri- 
ficing devotion to country, through rains and 
storms, and wintry desolations, than the noble 
Ohio Second, under the command of Colonel 
Harris, through the campaign in the mountains 
of eastern Kentucky. 

In December, the regiment was transferred to 
the Division commanded by the lamented Gene- 
ral MiTCHEL, then encamped at Louisville. From 
this point, the army pressed forward victoriously 
through Elizabethtown, Bowling Green, Nash- 
ville, and Murfreesboro', until the old banner 
floated in the Tennessee breezes at Shel- 
byville. While here, the daring expedition 
to penetrate the heart of the Confederacy 
was organized, of which party PiTTENGER 
was one of the most enthusiastic and deter- 
mined. 

From*^ the day the brave fellows departed 
over the Southern hills on their adventurous 
journey, a veil was dropped which hid them 
from sight of friends for many weary months — 
and some of them for ever 1 No tidings came 
in answer to all the beseeching thought- ques- 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

tionings that followed their mysterious pathway 
'' beyond the lines." 

Yague rumors were current around the camp- 
fires and home- circles that the whole party had 
been executed. Friends began to despair. 
Strangers began to inquire as if for missing 
friends. A universal sympathy prevailed in 
their behalf, and whole communities were excited 
to the wildest fervor on account of the lost ad- 
venturers. The widely-read letters from the 
Steubenville Herald's army correspondent were 
missed, for Pittenger wrote no more. The 
family were in an agony of suspense for the 
silent, absent son and brother. His ever faith- 
ful friend, Chaplain Gaddis, of the Ohio Second, 
made an effort to go, under a flag of truce, in 
search of the party, but was dissuaded by the 
commanding of&cers from so hopeless an 
undertaking. The summer passed, and yet no 
tidings came. The autumn came with its me- 
lancholy, — and uncertain rumors, like withered, 
fallen leaves, were again afloat about the camps 
and the firesides. The dreary winter came, and 
still the hearts of the most hopeful were chilled 
with disappointment. The father began to 
think of William as dead, — the mother to talk 
of her darling as one who had lived, — the chil- 
dren to speak of their elder brother as one they 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

should never see any more until all the lost 
loved ones meet in the better land. The writer 
was even solicited by a mutual friend to preach 
the funeral sermon of one whose memory was 
still dear, but whom none of us ever hoped to 
see again on earth. 

But our Father in heaven was kinder than we 
thought. Our prayers had been heard! As 
our fervent petitions winged up from family 
altars to the ear of the Infinite Lover, the gu.ar- 
dian angels winged afar downward through 
battle alarms, and ministered to him for whom 
we besought protection. When the bright 
spring days came smiling over the earth, a mes- 
sage came from the hand of the missing one, 
brighter and sunnier to our hearts than the 
April sunlight on the hills ! Soon the story 
was told, and we all thanked God for the merci- 
ful deliverance of him for whom we prayed, and 
who had found, even in a dismal prison-cell, the 
Pearl of great price ! The one we loved returned 
home a witness of the Spirit that came to him 
as a Comforter in his dreariest loneliness, and 
is already a minister of the precious Gospel 
that gladdened him in the time of his tribula- 
tion. 

And now the reader shall know all about the 



22 INTKODUCTION. 

tedious delay and the long silence, from the pen 
of him who survives to tell the story. 

We commend to all who peruse this narrative 
an interesting volume, entitled '' Beyond the 
Lines,'''' another sad rehearsal of terror in rebel 
prisons and Southern swamps, in other portions 
of the Confederacy — the experience of Kev. 
Capt. J. J. Geer, now one of Lieutenant PiT- 
tenger's associate-advocates for liberty in the 
pulpit, as he was recently a brother-bondman in 
the land of tyranny and death. A. C. 

Philadelphia, September 15, 1863. 



DARING AND SUFFERING. 



CHAPTER I. 

Sad Retrospective — Object of the Book — Military Situation 
in the Southwest — Disaster and Energy of the Rebels — 
Necessity for a Secret Expedition — A Proposition to 
Buell and Mitchel — An Attempt and Failure — Return of 
Adventurers — Second Expedition — "Writer Volunteers — 
Andrews, the Leader — Parting from the Regiment — On 
the Way — Perplexities — The Writer Cur-tailed! 

It is painful for me to write the adventures 
of the last year. As I compose my mind to the 
task, there arises before me the memory of days 
of suffering, and nights of sleepless apprehen- 
sion — days and nights that, in their black mo- 
notony, seemed well nigh eternal. And the 
sorrow, too, which I felt on that terrible day, 
when my companions, whom common dangers 
and common sufferings had made as brothers to 
me, were dragged away to an ignominious 
death that I expected soon to share — all comes 
before me in the vividness of present reality, 
and I almost shrink back and lay down the pen. 

(23) 



24 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

But I believe it to be a duty to give to tbe pub- 
lic the details of the great railroad adventure, 
which created such an excitement in the South, 
and which Judge Holt pronounced to be the 
most romantic episode of the war, both op ac- 
count of the intrinsic interest involved, and 
still more because of the light it throws on the 
manners and feelings of the Southern people, 
and their conduct during the rebellion. 

With this view, I have decided to give a 
detailed history of the expedition, its failure, and 
the subsequent imprisonment and fate of all of 
the members of the party. In doing this, I will 
have the aid of the survivors of the expedition 
— fourteen in all — and hope to give a narrative 
that will combine the strictest truth with all the 
interest of a romance. 

In order to understand why the destruction 
of the Georgia State Railroad was of so much 
consequence, I will refer to the situation of 
afiliirs in the Southwest, in the opening of the 
spring of 1862. 

The year commenced very auspiciously for 
our arms. Fort Donelson had fallen, after a 
desperate contest, and nearly all its garrison 
were taken prisoners. The scattered remains of 
the rebel army, under Johnston, had retreated 
precipitately from Kentucky, which had indeed 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 25 

been to them " the dark and bloody ground." 
Columbus and Nashville were evacuated, and 
fel! into our hands. Island No. 10 was invested, 
and the Tennessee river groaned beneath a 
mighty army afloat, the same that had conquered 
Donelson, under its popular leader, General 
Grant, and which, it was fondly hoped, would 
strike far away into the center of the rebel 
States. Throughout the North, men talked of 
the war as done, and speculated as to the terms 
of a peace that was soon to come. 

But the end was not yet. The rebel leaders, 
who had embarked their all in this cause, 
and had pictured to themselves a magnificent 
slaveholding empire, stretching away from the 
Potomac to the Sierra Madre, in Mexico, and 
swallowing up all tropical America in one 
mighty nation, devoted to the interests of cot- 
ton and slavery alone, over which they should 
reign, were not yet satisfied to relinquish their 
cause as desperate, and abandon their glorious 
dreams. With a wonderful energy that must 
command our admiration, though it be only of 
the kind that is accorded to Satan as pictured 
in " Paradise Lost," they passed the conscription 
law, abandoned the posts they still held on the 
frontier, and concentrated their forces on a 
shorter line of defence. 
3 



26 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

The eastern part of this line extended from 
Eichmond, through Lynchburg, to East Tennes- 
see. In the west, it was represented by the 
Memphis and Charleston Kailroad, extending 
from Memphis, through Corinth, Hunts ville, 
Chattanooga, and Atlanta, to Charleston. Here 
they poured forward their new levies, and began 
to prepare for another desperate contest. 

The unaccountable inertness of the Eastern 
army of the Union, under McClellan, gave them 
time to strengthen their defences, and reinforce 
their army, which had dwindled to a yery low 
ebb during the winter. But while the commander 
of the East was planning strategy that, by the 
slowness of its development, if by nothing 
worse, was destined to dim the lustre of the 
Union triumphs, and lose the results of a year 
of war, the West was in motion. Down the 
Mississippi swept our invincible fleet, with an 
army on shore to second its operations. Up 
the Tennessee steamed Grant's victorious army, 
and Buell, with forty thousand men, was 
marching across the State of Tennessee, to reach 
the same point. My own division, under the 
lamented General 0. M. Mitchel, was also 
marching across the State, but in a different 
direction, having Chattanooga as its ultimate aim, 
while Morgan, with another strong force, many 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 27 

of whom were refugees from East Tennessee, lay 
before Cumberland Grap, ready to strike through 
that fastness to Knoxville, and thus reach the 
very heart of rebellion. 

To meet these powerful forces, whose destina- 
tion he could not altogether foresee, Beauregard, 
who commanded in the west, concentrated his 
main army at Corinth, with smaller detach- 
ments scattered along the railroad to Chatta- 
nooga. The railroads on which he relied for 
supplies and reinforcements, as well as for com- 
munication with the eastern portion of rebel- 
dom, formed an irregular parallelogram, of 
which the northern side extended from Mem- 
phis to Chattanooga, the eastern from Chatta- 
nooga to Atlanta, the southern from Atlanta to 
Jackson, Mississippi, and the western, by a net- 
work of roads, from Jackson to Memphis. The 
great East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, 
which has not inaptly been called *' the back- 
bone of the rebellion," intersected this parallelo- 
gram at Chattanooga. Thus it will be seen 
that to destroy the northern and eastern sides 
of this parallelogram isolated Beauregard, and 
left East Tennessee, which was then almost 
stripped of troops, to fall easily before General 
Morgan. 

So important was this destruction of comma- 



28 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

nication deemed by those in power, that it was 
at first intended to reach both sides, and destroy 
them by armies ; but the distance was so great 
that the design of destroying it in this manner 
was abandoned. 

However, just at this time, J. J. Andrews, 
who was a secret agent of the United States, 
and had repeatedly visited every part of the 
South, proposed another method of accomplish- 
ing the same object, by means of a secret mili- 
tary expedition, to burn the bridges on the 
road, and thus interrupt communication long 
enough for the accomplishment of the schemes 
which were expected to give rebellion in the 
southwest its death-blow. He first made the 
proposition to General Buell, who did not, for 
some reason, approve of it. Afterwards he re- 
peated it to General Mitchel, who received it 
with more favor. 

Our division was at this time lying at Mur- 
freesboro', repairing some bridges that had been 
destroyed, preparatory to an onward march fur- 
ther into the interior. All at once, eight men 
were detailed from our regiment— four of them 
from my own company. No one knew anything 
of their object or destination, and numberless 
were the conjectures that were afloat concerning 
them. Some supposed they had gone home to 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 29 

arrest deserters ; others, that they were desert- 
ers themselves. But this last idea was contra- 
dicted by the fact that they were seen in close 
and apparently confidential communication 
with the officers just before their departure, as 
well as by the character of the men themselves, 
who were among the boldest and bravest of the 
regiment. Many supposed that they were sent 
into the enemy's country as spies ; but the idea 
of sending such a number of spies from the 
privates in the ranks was so obviously absurd, 
that I did not seriously consider it. However, 
I was not long to remain in uncertainty, for an 
officer, who was an intimate friend of mine, re- 
vealed the secret to me. The enterprise was so 
grand and so audacious, that it instantly charmed 
my imagination, and I at once went to Colonel 
L. A. Harris, of the Second Ohio, and asked, as 
a favor from him, that if any detail was made 
for another expedition of the same kind, I 
should be placed on it. 

Soon after, one of the party, from Company 
C, returned, and reported that he had ventured 
as far as Chattanooga, and there had met a Con- 
federate soldier who recognized him as belonging 
to the Union army ; and while, for the sake of 
old friendship, he hesitated to denounce him to 
the authorities, yet advised him to return, which 
3* 



30 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

he immediately did, and arrived safely in camp 
in a few days. He would give no details that 
might embarrass his companions, who were still 
pressing their way onward into the Confede- 
racy. 

A short time after this, all the party came 
back, and I received full details of their trip to 
the center of rebeldom. They had proceeded 
in citizens' dress, on foot and unsuspected, to 
Chattanooga ; there had taken the cars for At- 
lanta, where they arrived in safety. Here they 
expected to meet a Georgia engineer, who had 
been running on the State road for some time, 
and, with his assistance, intended to seize the 
passenger train, at breakfast, and run through 
to our lines, burning all the bridges in their 
rear. For several days they waited for him, but 
he came not. They afterwards learned that 
he had been pressed to run troops to Beaure- 
gard, who was then concentrating every avail- 
able man at Corinth, in anticipation of the great 
battle which afterwards took place. Thus 
foiled, and having no man among them capable 
of running an engine, they abandoned the enter- 
prise for that time, and quietly stole back to our 
lines. Had an engineer then been along, they 
would, in all probability, have been successful. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 81 

as the obstacles which afterward defeated us did 
not then exist. 

Our camp had been moved onward from Mur- 
freesboro' to Shelbyville, which is a beautiful 
little city, situated on Duck river. We camped 
above the town, in a delightful meadow. 

It was Sabbath, the 6th of April, and the earli- 
ness of the clime made the birds sing, and the 
fields bloom with more than the brilliancy of May 
in our own northern land. Deeply is the quiet 
of that Sabbath, with the green beauty of the 
warm spring landscape, pictured on my mind I 
An impression, I know not what, made me de- 
vote the day to writing letters to my friends. 
It was well I did so, for long and weary months 
passed ere I was permitted to write to them 
again. 

But while the day was passing in such sweet 
repose with us, it was far different in another 
army ; that was the day on which Grant was 
surprised by Beauregard, and only saved from 
destruction by the assistance of the gunboats. 
This, however, we did not learn for several days 

after. 

On Monday, Andrews returned to our camp. 
He had spent some time along the line of the 
Georgia State road, and on his return reported 
to General Mitchel that the scheme was still 



82 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

feasible, and would be of more advantage than 
ever. He, however, asked for a larger detail 
of men, and twenty-four were given from the 
three Ohio regiments then in Sill's Brigade. 
One man was detailed from a company, though 
all the companies were not represented, and I 
believe in two* instances, two men were detailed 
from one company — they were probably inti- 
mate friends, who wished to go together. 

During the day, I saw Andrews in the camp. 
I had seen him frequently before, away up in 
the mountains of eastern Kentucky, but did not 
then observe him particularly. Now I paid 
more attention. He was nearly six feet in 
hight, of powerful frame, black hair, and long, 
black, silken beard, Eoman features, a high and 
expansive forehead, and a voice fine and soft as 
a woman's. He gave me the impression of a 
man who combined intellect and refinement 
with the most cool and dauntless courage. Yet 
his manner and speech, which was slow and 
pensive, indicated what I afterwards found to be 
almost his only fault — a slowness to decide on 
the spur of the moment, and back his decision 
by prompt, vigorous action. This did not de- 
tract from his value as a secret agent, when 
alone, for then all his actions were premeditated, 

* One of these I noticed only very lately. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 33 

and carried out with surpassing coolness and 
bravery ; but it did unfit him for the command 
of men, in startling emergencies, where instant 
action afforded the only chance of safety. This 
trait of character will be more fully developed 
in the course of my story. I conversed with him 
on the object of the expedition, not, of course, 
expecting a full detail, but receiving a general 
idea. I put particular stress on his promise, 
that whatever happened, he would keep us all 
together, and, if necessary, we would cut our 
way through in a body. This was because, 
being near-sighted, and, therefore, a bad hand to 
travel in a strange country, with no guide, I 
had a particular horror of being left alone. 

I returned to my company, and procured a 
suit of citizen's clothes from our boys who had 
been out before. All the members of the com- 
pany, seeing me so arrayed, came around to try 
to dissuade me from the enterprise, which to 
them appeared full of unknown perils. It was 
gratifying to be the object of so much solicitude, 
but having decided to go, I could not yield. 

My captain, J. F. Sarratt, of Company G-, 
Second Ohio, as brave and true-hearted a sol- 
dier as ever lived, earnestly entreated me not to 
go ; but finding my determination was fixed, he 
bade me an affectionate farewell. Seldom have 



U4 DARING AND SUFFERING ; OR 

I parted with more emotion from any one than 
these war-worn veterans. 

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon 
when we left camp, and started for the place of 
rendezvous at Shelbyville. The sun was shin- 
ing brightly, and the bracing evening air sent 
the blood coursing cheerily through our veins, 
and inspired us with the brightest hopes of the 
future. Soon we reached Shelbyville, and lin- 
gered there for an hour or two, when Ross and 
I, acting under the previous direction of An- 
drews, started out of town. Our orders were 
for us all to proceed along the road in small 
squads, for two or three miles, and then halt and 
wait for him. 

We walked quietly along, until about dark, 
when, seeing none of the others, we began to 
grow uneasy, fearing we had gone on the wrong 
road. We met several persons, but they could 
give no account of any one before ; then we saw 
a house just by the road, and crossing the fence, 
went up to it to get a drink of water. Before 
we reached the door, a clo^ came up behind my 
companion and bit him — then ran away before 
punishment could be inflicted. 

The bite was not severe, and I good-humor- 
edly laughed at his mishap ; but before we again 
reached the fence, the same dog came once more. 



THE GKEAT KAILROAD ADVENTURE. 35 

Ross saw him, and sprang over the fence ; but I 
had only time to reach the top of it, where I 
sat in fancied security. But the merciless whelp, 
in his ire, sprang at me, seized my coat, and tore 
a large piece out of it ! That coat, thus cur- 
tailed, I wore all through Dixie. I mention 
this incident, because it was what some would 
call a bad omen. 



36 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 



CHAPTER II. 

Midnight Consultation — Plans Developed — Money Distri- 
buted — Compagnons du Voyage — A Dismal Night — Shel- 
tered from the Storm — Southern Unionist — Arrested by 
Federal Soldiers— Beyond the Lines — Panic Caused by 
Negroes — Method of Avoiding Suspicion — Continuous 
Rain — Behind Time — Hunting Human Beings with 
Bloodhounds— The Cumberland Mountains — Rain again. 

We now proceeded on our way — not re- 
joicing, for our situation grew every moment 
more perplexing. Darkness was falling rapidly, 
and not one of our comrades was visible. We 
were almost certain we had taken the wrong road. 
Finally, we resolved to retrace our steps, and en- 
deavor to obtain some clue to our journey, or if 
we could not, to return to camp ; for, without in- 
struction, we knew not how or where to go. 
We therefore retraced our steps till in sight of 
Shelby ville, and then, sure that none could pass 
without our knowledge, we waited nearly an 
hour longer. 

Our patience was rewarded. A few, whom 
we recognized as belonging to our party, came 
along the road ; we fell in with them, and were 
soon overtaken by others, among whom was 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 37 

Andrews. Now all was right. Soon we were 
as far from Shelby ville as Ross and I had been 
whsn alone, and a few hundred yards further 
on we found the remainder of our comrades. 

In a little thicket of dead and withered trees, 
sufficiently open to assure us that no listening 
ear was near, we halted, and Andrews revealed 
to us his plans. There were twenty-three 
gathered around him ; twenty-four had been de- 
tailed, but from some cause, one had failed to 
report. In low tones, amid the darkness, he 
gave us the details of the romantic expedition. 

We were to break up in small squads of 
three or four, and travel as far south as Chatta- 
nooga. If questioned, we were to answer so as 
to avoid exciting suspicion, and tell any plau- 
sible tale that might answer our purpose. 

We were to travel rapidly, and, if possible, 
reach Chattanooga on Thursday evening at five 
o'clock. This was Monday, and the distance 
was one hundred and three miles, a heavy 
travel on foot ; but then we were allowed to 
hire conveyances, if we could. 

Andrews then gave us some Confederate 
money to bear our expenses, and we parted. 
There were three others with me ; P. G. Shad- 
rack, of Company K, Second Ohio, a merry, 
reckless fellow, but at heart noble and gene- 
4 



88 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

rous ; William Campbell, a citizen of Kentucky, 
who had received permission to come with us, 
in a soldier's place. He was a man of two hun- 
dred and twenty pounds weight, handsome as 
Apollo, and of immense physical strength, which 
he was not slow to use when roused, though 
good-natured and clever in the main. 

The third was the most remarkable man of 
the whole party. He was not educated highly, 
though he had read a great deal ; but in natu- 
ral shrewdness, I rarely, if ever, saw his equal. 
He had traveled extensively over the United 
States, had observed everything, and remem- 
bered all he observed. Had he lived, the com- 
position of this book would have been in abler 
hands thaa mine. In addition to this, he ex- 
celled,, perhaps, even Parson Brownlow, in the 
fiery and scorching denunciation he could hurl 
on the head of an opponent. In action he was 
brave and cool; no danger could frighten him, 
no emergency find him unprepared. These 
were my companions. 

The rain had begun to fall slightly as we 
walked out the railroad, on our route, and soon 
it increased to torrents. The night was pitchy 
dark, and we stumbled along, falling into gut- 
ters here, and nearly sticking in the mud there, 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 39 

■until midniglit, when we resolved to seek shel- 
ter from the storm. 

For a long time we could find no indication 
of a house, until, at last, the barking of a dog 
gave us a clue. After some dispute as to which 
side of the road it was on, we struck off" over a 
field. Our only guide were the random flashes 
of lightning that gave us a momentary view of 
the country around. The better to prosecute 
our search, we formed a line within hearing dis- 
tance of each other, and thus swept around in 
all directions. At last we found a barn, but 
were so wet and chilly that we resolved to hunt 
on, in the hope of finding a fire and a bed. 

After a still more tedious search, we found 
the goal of our wishes. It was a rude, double 
log-house. Here we roused up the inmates, and 
demanded a shelter for the night. The man of 
the house was evidently alarmed, but let us in, 
and then commenced questioning us as to who 
we were. 

We told him we were Kentuckians who were 
disgusted with the tyranny of the Lincoln 
Government, and were seeking an asylum in 
the free and independent South. 

" Oh," said he, " you come on a bootless 
errand, and had better go back home, for I have 



40 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

no doubt the wliole of tlie South will soon be 
as much under Lincoln as Kentucky is." 

" Never !" we answered, " we will fight till we 
die first !" 

At this the old man chuckled quietly, and 
only said, '' Well, we'll see ; we'll see," which 
closed the discussion. 

We were truly glad to find a Union man 
under such circumstances, but did not dare to 
reveal our true character to him, and he proba- 
bly believes to this day that he harbored some 
chivalric Southerners. However, he provided 
us with a good supper and a comfortable bed, 
promising, also, not to inform the Federal pick- 
ets on us. The next morning, the sky for a 
time was clear, but it soon became overcast, and 
we were again compelled to suffer the inevitable 
drenching that befel us every day of this dreary 
journey. 

We reached Wartrace in the midst of a 
pelting storm. At first we intended to go 
around the town, as it was the last station on 
our picket line. It was raining so hard that we 
thought we would not be interrupted in passing 
through it, but our guards were too vigilant for 
us. They stopped us, and after being for some 
time detained, and trying to play off the inno- 
cent Southern citizen, as hundreds do, we were 



THE GREAT BAILROAD ADVENTURE. 41 

obliged to reveal our true character to the com- 
manding officer of the post, which, of course, 
secured our release. 

Then again, we traveled onward for a time, 
wading the swollen creeks, and plodding through 
the mud as fast as we could. We were now 
outside of our lines, with nothing to trust to 
but the tender mercies of the rebels. Soon 
after, we found what a slender ground of trust 
that was, but 71010 we were safe in the complete- 
ness of our disguise. 

We met many others of our party, and 
trudged along — sometimes in company with 
them, but oftener alone. Toward evening, we 
reached Manchester, crossed Duck river, which 
was at flood hight, and entered the town. 

Here we found the population in a wild 
ferment, and on inquiring the cause, learned 
that some of the citizens had reported an ap- 
proaching band of Yankee cavalry, and that 
they were even now visible from the public 
square. We repaired thither with all speed to 
witness the novel spectacle of the entrance of 
National troops into a hostile town, from a 
Southern point of view. Mingled were the 
emotions expressed ; fear was most prominent, 
but I thought I could detect on some counte- 
nances a half- concealed smile of exultation. 

4* 



42 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

Soon the terrible band loomed up over the hill 
which bounded the view, when lo ! the dreaded 
enemies were seen to be only a party of negroes, 
who had been working in the coal mines in the 
mountains somewhere. Some of Mitchel's men 
had destroyed the works, and the contrabands 
were brought here for safe keepi n g. The feelings 
of the chivalry may be better imagined than 
described, as they dispersed with curses on the 
whole African race ! 

We here obtained from some of the citizens the 
names of the most prominent secessionists along 
the route we were to travel, who would be most 
likely to help us on to that blissful land where we 
might enjoy our rights in peace (?) undisturbed 
by even dreams of Abolitionists. These names 
were a great advantage to us, because always 
having some one to inquire for, and being re- 
commended from one influential man to another, 
it was taken for granted that we were trustwor- 
thy characters, and few questions asked. That 
night we were within a few miles of Hills- 
boro', but so much were we delayed by the rain, 
that we began to fear we could not reach our 
destination in time. My feet, too, were sore 
from the gravel and dirt that filled my shoes in 
crossing the creeks, and wading through the 
mud, and already we were weary and stiff from 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 43 

traveling in the wet. But we resolved to press 
on, and, if necessary, to travel in tlie night, 
too, rather than miss our appointment. 

Where we stayed that night, I first heard from 
the lips of a slave-owner himself of hunting 
negroes with bloodhounds. Our host said 
he had seen some one dodging around the 
back of his plantation, by the edge of the woods, 
just as it was getting dark, and in the morning 
he would take his bloodhounds, and go to hunt 
him up, and if it proved to be a negro, he would 
get the reward. He said he had caught great 
numbers of them, and seemed to regard it as a 
highly profitable business. 

We, of course, had to agree with him ; but . 
well remember that the idea of hunting human 
beings with bloodhounds, for money, sent a 
thrill of horror and detestation through my 
veins. Not long after, we found that blood- 
hounds were not for negroes alone. 

The next morning, we continued our journey, 
and after walking three miles, found a man who 
agreed, for an exorbitant price, and for the good 
of the Confederacy, to give us conveyance in a 
wagon for a few miles. This was a great help 
to us, and as we trotted briskly along, we soon 
came in sight of the Cumberland Mountains. 



44 DARING AND SUFFERING ; OR 

Never did I behold more beautiful scenery. 
The rain had for a short time ceased to fall, and 
the air was clear. The mountains shone in the 
freshest green, and around their tops, just high 
enough to veil their loftiest summits, clung a 
soft, shadowy mist, gradually descending lower, 
shrouding one after another of the spurs and 
high mountain vail eys from view. But the beau- 
tiful scene did not long continue. Soon the 
mist deepened into cloud, and again the inter- 
minable rain began to fall. To add to our dis- 
comforts, our wagon would go no further, and 
once more we trudged along afoot. 

At noon we stopped for dinner at a house be- 
longing to one of the '' sand-hillers." This is 
the general name applied to the poor class of 
whites at the South. They have no property of 
their own, and live in small hovels, on the worst 
portions of the lands of the rich. Here they 
lead an ignorant, lazy life, devoting most of 
their time to hunting and fishing ; only raising a 
little patch of corn to furnish their bread. They 
are almost as completely owned by their land- 
lords as the slaves, and are compelled to vote as 
their masters choose. In the social scale they 
are no higher than any slave, nor do they de- 
serve to be, for their intelligence is less. The 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 45 

term *'sand-liiller," or " clay- eater," is a terrible 
one of reproach, and is applied unsparingly by 
the aristocrats. Of course, our entertainment 
here was composed of rather rude fare, but we 
ate the half-ground and half-baked corn bread, 
with the strong pork, and went on our way re- 
joicing. 



46 DAKING AND SUFFEBINa ; OR 



CHAPTEE III. 

Crossing the Mountains — Playing Hypocrite — Legend of 
Battle-Creek Valley — Lodged with a Secessionist — 
Strategy — A Welcome but Fatal Delay — Exaggerated 
Accounts of Shiloh — Prevented from Crossing the Ten- 
nessee — In the Mountains Again — Amusing Rebel Story 
— To the River Again — Perilous Crossing — Success — 
Chattanooga — On the Cars — Night — Arrive at Marietta. 

We were near the foot of the Cumberland 
Mountains, and addressed ourselves to the task 
of crossing them. Just as we were mounting 
the first spur, we fell in with a Confederate sol- 
dier, who was at home on a furlough. He had 
been in a number of battles, and among others 
the first Manassas, which he described very mi- 
nutely to me. Little did he think that I, too, 
had been there, as we laughed together at the 
wild panic of the Yankees. He was greatly de- 
lighted to see so many Kentuckians coming out 
on the right side, and contrasted our noble con- 
duct with that of some persons of his own neigh- 
borhood, who siill sympathized with the Abo- 
litionists. 

When we parted, he grasped my hand with 
tears in his eyes, and said he hoped " the time 
would soon come when we would be comrades, 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 47 

fighting side by side in one glorious cause." 
My heart revolted from the hypocrisy I was 
compelled to use ; but having commenced, there 
was no possibility of turning back. 

On we clambered up the mountain till the top 
was reached ; then across the summit, which 
was a tolerably level road for six miles ; then 
down again, over steep rocks, yawning chasms, 
and great gullies ; a road that nooe but East 
Tennesseeans or soldier Yankees could have 
traveled at all. This rough jaunt led us down 
into Battle Creek, which is a delightful, pictu- 
resque valley, hemmed in by projecting ridges 
of lofty mountains. 

While here, they told me how this valley 
obtained its name, which is certainly a very 
romantic legend, and no doubt true. 

In early times there was war among the 
Indians. One tribe made a plundering expedi- 
tion into the camp of another, and after securing 
their booty retreated. Of course they were 
pursued, and in their flight were traced to this 
valley. There the pursuers believed them to be 
concealed, and to make their capture sure, 
divided their force into two bands, each one 
taking an opposite side of the valley. 

It was early in the morning, and as they 
wended their way cautiously onward, the raoun- 



48 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

tain mist came down just as I had seen it de- 
scend that morning, and enveloped each of the 
parties in its folds. Determined not to be 
foiled, they marched on, and meeting at the 
head of the valley, each supposed the other to 
be the enemy. They poured in their fire, and a 
deadly conflict ensued. Not till nearly all their 
number had fallen did the survivors discover 
their mistake, and they slowly and sorrowfully 
returned to their wigwams. The plunderers, who 
had listened to their conflict in safet}^, being fur- 
ther up the mountains, were thus left to carry 
home their booty in triumph. 

But we had no leisure for legendary tales. 

The sun had set, and we stopped for the night 
with a rabid Secessionist, whom our soldier- 
friend on the mountain had recommended to us. 
He received us with open arms, shared with us 
the best his house afforded — giving us his bed- 
room, and sleeping with his family in the kit- 
chen. We spent the evening in denouncing the 
Abolitionists, which term was used indiscrimi- 
nately to designate all Federals who did not 
advocate the acknowledgment of the Confede- 
racy. This did not go quite so hard as it did 
at first, for practice had rendered it nearly as easy 
for us to falsify our sentiments as to express 
them plainly. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 49 

Among other things we instanced to show 
the tyranny of the Lincolnites in Kentucky, 
was the expatriation law. This hiw provides 
that all persons aiding or abetting the rebels, or 
leaving the State and going South with their 
army, shall be expatriated, and lose all their 
right of citizenship in the State. The old man 
thought this was an act of unparalleled oppres- 
sion ; and in the morning, before I was out of 
bed, came in the room, and desired that some 
one of us would write that law down, that he 
might show his Union neighbors what the Yan- 
kees would do when they had the sway. I 
wrote it, and we all afterward signed our names 
to it. No doubt that document has been the 
theme of many angry discussions. 

So thoroughly did we deceive the old man, 
that when, three days after, the railroad adven- 
ture fell on the astonished Confederates like a 
clap of thunder out of a clear sky, he would 
not believe that we were part of the men en- 
gaged in it. One of his neighbors, who was a 
Union man, and was arrested and confined in 
the same 'prison with us, told us that to the 
last our host maintained that his guests, at 
least, were true and loyal Southerners. Should 
I ever again be in that part of the country, I 
would delight to call on him in my true character, 
5 



50 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

and talk over tlie national troubles from another 
point of view. 

We stayed "with him Wednesday night, and 
were still a long way from Chattanooga. "We 
had designed, notwithstanding our weariness, to 
travel all that night, but accidentally met some 
of our comrades who had seen Andrews, who 
informed them that he had postponed the enter- 
prise one day longer. This was a great relief, 
as it saved us a most wearisome and dreaded 
night tramp. But better to have taken it, for 
the delay of that one day was fatal. On Friday 
there would have been no extra trains to meet, 
and our success would have been sure. But 
this we did not know at the time. 

The next day, which was Thursday, we came 
to Jasper, stopped in the town and around the 
groceries awhile, talking of the state of the 
country. We told them Kentucky was just 
ready to rise and shake off her chains, and they 
were just foolish enough to believe it ! 

Here we heard the first indistinct rumor of 
the battle of Shiloh — of course, a wonderful 
victory to the rebels, killing thousands of Yan- 
kees, and capturing innumerable cannon. It 
was the impression that our army was totally 
destroyed. One countryman gravely assured 
me that five hundred gunboats had been sunk. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 51 

I told him I did not think the Yankees had so 
many as that, but was unable to shake his 
faith. 

That night we stayed at Widow Hall's, and 
there met Andrews and some of our other com- 
rades. This was on the banks of the Tennes- 
see river, and Andrews advised us to cross 
there, and to take passage on the cars at Shell 
Mound station, as there had been a stringent 
order issued to let no one cross above, who could 
not present perfectly satisfactory credentials. 
Andrews had these, but we had not ; it was, 
therefore, advisable for us to be challenged as 
few times as possible. We passed a pleasant 
evening, during which the wit of my friend 
Shadrack kept us in a continual roar of laughter. 

At last morning came, and we went down to 
the bank of the river to cross. The ferryman 
had just swung the boat into the stream, and we 
were getting into it, when a man arrived with 
positive orders from the military authorities to 
let no one across for three days. 

Afl'airs now looked dark. We could not 
cross except at the upper ferries, and not there 
unless our credentials were good. However, we 
resolved to persevere, and thinking in this case, 
as in many others, the boldest plan would be 
the safest, we again struck over the wild spurs 



62 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

of the Cumberland, which here sweep directly 
down to the river, on in the direction of Chat- 
tanooga, with the intention of trying to cross 
there, at headquarters. 

Our journey was far from a pleasant one, 
and several times we lost our road in the en- 
tanglements of the mountains ; but at last we 
reached a valley that ran directly down to the 
river, opposite Chattanooga. Here the road 
was more frequented, and from the travelers we 
met we learned further particulars of the battle 
of Shiloh. Still the accounts were rose-tinted 
for the Confederates, though they now admitted 
a considerable loss. 

One man gave me an interesting item of news 
from the East ; it was, that the Merrimac had 
steamed out, and after engaging the Monitor for 
some time with no decisive results, had ran 
alongside, and throwing grappling- hooks on her, 
towed her ashore, where, of course, she fell an 
easy prey. He said that now they had the two 
best gunboats in the world, and they would be 
able to raise the blockade without difficulty, and 
even to burn the Northern cities. But I have 
not space to tell of all the wild chimeras and 
absurd stories that we heard on our entrance 
into a land where truth always has been contra- 
band. From that time forward, we heard of 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVKNTURE. 53 

continuous Confederate victories, and not one 
Union triumph, till in September, when they 
admitted that they were repulsed by Rose- 
crans at Corinth. 

On reaching the river, we found a great num- 
ber of persons on the bank waiting to go over. 
The ferryman was there with a horse-boat, but 
the wind was so high that he feared to attempt 
the crossing. We waited as patiently as we 
could, though the time for the cars to start on 
the other side had nearly arrived, and we could 
not well afford to miss them. At length, the 
ferryman agreed to attempt the passage. He 
found it very difficult. We were about an hour 
in crossing, though the river was only a few 
hundred yards in width. Several times we 
were beaten back to our own side, but at last 
perseverance conquered, and we landed at Chat- 
tanooga. 

The passage was an anxious one, for we ex- 
pected to find the guard waiting for us on the 
other side ; and then, if we failed to satisfy them 
that we were loyal subjects of King Jefferson, 
we would at once land in a Southern prison. 
Judge, then, of our delight when we saw no 
guard there, and were permitted to pass un- 
molested and unquestioned on our route. 

I do not yet know the reason of this sudden 
5* 



54 DARING AND SUFFERING ; OR 

relaxation of vigilance. Perhaps it was be- 
cause all their attention was directed to Hunts- 
ville, which was now occupied in force by Gene- 
ral Mitchel. The panic produced by this occu- 
pation was immense, as the only communication 
it left them with Beauregard was by the circui- 
tous route through Atlanta, and when, the next 
day, this too was endangered, their excitement 
knew no bounds. 

Chattanooga is a small town — not much more 
than a village. It is pleasantly situated on the 
banks of the Tennessee, and is bowered in 
amidst lofty mountain peaks. One of these 
hangs right over the town, and is more than 
seven hundred feet in perpendicular hight. 
From its summit parts of four States are visible 
— Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and North 
Carolina. It is capable of being very strongly 
fortified ; and though there were no works 
erected when I was there, many may have been 
built since. It is one of the most important 
strategic points in the whole South, and should 
have been in the possession of our forces long 
ago. 

From the river we went directly to the depot. 
Some of our party had arrived earlier, and gone 
down to Marietta on a former train. We found 
the cars nearly ready to start, and after loitering 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 55 

around a few minutes in the depot, which was 
crowded full of travelers — mostly soldiers — we 
purchased our tickets and got aboard. The 
cars were jammed full. There was scarcely 
room to stand. Many of the passengers were 
soldiers who had been at home on furlough, and 
were returning to join Beauregard. The con- 
versation was mostly on the great battle which 
had just been fought, and the accounts were by 
no means so glowing as they had been at first ; 
still they announced a great victory. "We took 
part in the conversation, and expressing as much 
interest as any one, our true character was not 
suspected. There was at this time no system of 
passports in use on that line, and travel was en- 
tirely unrestricted. 

The sun was about an hour high as we glided 
out of the depot, and soon sunk to rest behind 
the hills of Georgia. There were many bridges 
on the road, and as we passed over them, we 
could not help picturing to ourselves our pro- 
posed return on the morrow, and the probabili- 
ties of the destruction we intended to wreck on 
them. Darkness gradually closed in, and on we 
went amid the laughter and oaths of the Con- 
federates, many of whom were very much in- 
toxicated. I procured a seat on the coal-box, 
and for awhile gave myself up to the reflections 



56 

naturally suggested by the near culmination of 
the enterprise in which I was engaged. Visions 
of former days and friends — dear friends, both 
around the camp-fire and by the hearth of home, 
whom I might never see again, floated before 
me. But gradually, as the night wore on, these 
faded, and I slept. 

At midnight, we were wakened by the con- 
ductor calling ^'Marietta." The goal was 
reached. We were in the center of the Confe- 
deracy, with our deadly enemies all around. 
Before we left, we were to strike a blow that 
would either make all rebeldom vibrate to the 
center, or be ourselves at the mercy of the mer- 
ciless. It was a time for solemn thought ; but 
we were too weary to indulge in speculations of 
the future. We retired to bed in the Tremont 
House, and were soon folded in sweet slumbers 
— the last time we slept on a bed for many 
weary months. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 57 



CHAPTER lY. 

Take an Early Train— Prospecting—Capture of the 
Train — Panic in Confederate Camp — Away at Light- 
ning Speed— Thrilling Experience— Cut the Telegraph- 
Tear up the Track — Unexpected Obstacle — Running a 
Powder Train to Beauregard— Red Flag— Dropping 
Cross-Ties— Battering out Spikes— Immense Exertion of 
Strength— Pursuing Backward— Terrible Chase— At- 
tempt to Wreck the Enemy's Train— Fearful Speed- 
Bold Plan. 

The waiter aroused us at four o'clock in the 
morning, as we told him we wished to take the 
train at that hour back to Camp McDonald, 
which is located at a place called Big Shanty, 
eight miles north of Marietta, and is also a 
breakfast station. Andrews had gone to an- 
other hotel, and warned the members of the 
party there to be in readiness to take passage. 
Two of them, Hawkins and Porter, who had 
arrived earlier, were not warned, and were, 
therefore, left behind. It was not their fault, as 
they had no certain knowledge of the time we 
were to start, but rather thought it would be 
the next day. 

There were just twenty of us on the train, 
Andrews and nineteen others, of whom several 



58 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

were engineers. We went along very quietly 
and inoffensively, just as any other passengers 
would do, until we reached Big Shanty. I 
knew that Ave were to take possession of the 
train at this place, but did not just know how it 
was to be done. I thought we would probably 
have to fight, and compel the conductor, 
train-hands, and passengers to get off. We 
might have done this, but it would have re- 
quired very quick work, for there were then 
some ten thousand troops, mostly conscripts, 
camped there, and a guard was placed watching 
the train. But a far better plan was adopted. 

As soon as we arrived, the engineer, conduc- 
tor, and many of the passengers went over to 
the eating-house. Now was our opportunity! 
Andrews, and one or two others, went forward 
and examined the track, to see if everything 
was in readiness for a rapid start. 

Oh ! what a thrilling moment was that ! Our 
hearts throbbed thick and fast with emotions we 
dared not manifest to those who were loafing 
indifferently around. In a minute, which 
seemed an hour, Andrews came back, opened 
the door, and said, very quietly and carelessly, 
" Let us go, now, boys." Just as quietly and 
carelessly we arose and followed him. The 
passengers who were lazily waiting for the train 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 59 

to move on and carry them to their destination, 
saw nothing in the transaction to excite their 
suspicions. Leisurely we moved forward- 
reached the head of the train— then Andrews, 
Brown our engineer, and Knight, who also 
could run an engine, leaped on the locomotive ; 
Alfred Wilson took the top of the cars as 
brakesman, and the remainder of us clambered 
into the foremost baggage car, which, with two 
others, had been previously uncoupled from the 
hinder part of the train. For one moment of 
most intense suspense all was still — then a pull — 
a jar— a clang— and we were flying away on our 
perilous journey. 

There are times in the life of man when 
whole years of intensest enjoyment seem con- 
densed into a single moment. It was so with 
me then. I could comprehend the emotion of 
Columbus, when he first beheld through the 
dim dawn of morning, the new found, but long 
dreamed-of shores of America, or the less inno- 
cent, but no less vivid joy of Cortez, when he 
first planted the cross of Spain over the golden 
halls of Montezuma. My breast throbbed 
full with emotions of- delight and gladness, 
that words labor in vain to express. A sense 
of ethereal lightness ran through all my veins, 
and I seemed to be ascending higher— higher— 



60 BAKING AND SUFFERING; OR 

into realms of inexpressible bliss, with each, 
pulsation of the engine. It was a moment of 
triumphant joy that will never return again. 
Not a dream of failure now shadowed my rap- 
ture. All had told us that the greatest difficulty 
was to reach and take possession of the engine, 
and after that, success was certain. It would 
have heeii, but for unforeseen contingencies. 

Away we scoured, passing field, and village, 
and woodland. At each leap of the engine our 
hearts rose higher, and we talked merrily of the 
welcome that would greet us when we dashed 
into Huntsville a few hours later — our enter- 
prise done, and the brightest laurels of the 
guerilla Morgan far eclipsed ! 

But the telegraph ran by our side, and was 
able, by the flashing of a single lightning mes- 
sage ahead, to arrest our progress and dissipate 
all our fondest hopes. There was no telegra- 
phic station where we took the train, but we knew 
not how soon our enemies might reach one, or 
whether they might not have a portable battery 
at command. To obviate all danger on this 
point, we stopped, after running some four miles, 
to cut the wire. 

John Scott, an active young man, climbed the 
pole, and with his hand knocked off the insu- 
lated box at the top, and swung down on the 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 61 

wire. Fortunately, there was a small saw on 
the engine, with which the wire was soon severed. 
"While this was being done, another party took 
up a rail, and put it into the car to carry off 
with us. This did not long check our pursuers, 
but we had the satisfaction of learning that it 
threw them, down an embankment, as will be 
narrated more fully in a Confederate account 
inserted hereafter. 

When the engine first stopped, Andrews 
jumped off, clasped our hands in ecstasy, con- 
gratulating us that our difficulties were now all 
over ; that we had the enemy at such a disad- 
vantage that he could not harm us, and exhi- 
bited every sign of joy. Said he, '^ Only one 
more train to pass, and then we will put our en- 
gine to full speed, burn the bridges after us, 
dash through Chattanooga, and on to Mitchel at 
Huntsville." The programme would have been 
filled if we had met only 07ie train. 

We were ahead of time, and in order to meet 
the down train just on time, we were obliged to 
stop on the track awhile. These were tedious 
moments while we waited, but soon we moved 
on very slowly again. At the next station, 
Andrews borrowed a schedule from the tank- 
tender, telling him that he was running an ex- 
press powder-train through to Beauregard. He 
6 



62 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

gave tlie schedule, saying tliat lie would send 
his shirt to Beauregard if he wanted it. When 
asked afterwards if he did not suspect anything, 
he said he would as soon have thought of sus- 
pecting Jeff Davis, as one who talked with so 
much assurance as Andrews did ! 

On we went till we reached the station where 
we were to pass what we believed to be the last 
train. Here the switch was not properly ad- 
justed, and Andrews entered the station-house, 
without asking leave of anybody, took down 
the keys, and adjusted the switch. This raised 
some disturbance on the part of those around 
the station, but it was quieted by telling them 
the same powder story. After waiting a short 
time, the down train arrived, and we passed it 
without difficulty. But we observed on it what 
we did not like — a red flag, indicating that an- 
other train was behind. 

This was most discouraging, for we had now 
hoped to have the road exclusively to our- 
selves ; but still we did not despair. However, 
we had yet to run on regular time, which was, 
unfortunately, very slow time — not more than 
twelve or fifteen miles an hotir. Thus unavoid- 
ably consuming our precious moments, we glided 
on till we reached the station where we expected 
to meet what we were now sure would be our 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 63 

last hindrance. We stopped on a side-track to 
wait for it, and there had to remain twenty-five 
minutes. Just as we had concluded to go on, and 
risk the chances of a collision, the expected 
train hove in sight. 

It was safely passed, as the other had been 
before ; but judge of our dismay when we be- 
held a red flag on this train also ! Matters now 
began to look dark. Much of our precious 
time, which we had reserved as a margin for 
burning bridges, was now gone, and we were 
still tied down to the slow regular rate of run- 
ning. Yet we could not retreat, and had no 
resource but to press firmly on. This we did, 
and obstructed the track as well as we could, by 
laying on cross-ties at different places. We 
also cut the telegraph wire between every sta- 
tion. 

Finally, when we were nearly to the station 
where we expected to meet the last train, we 
stopped to take up a rail. We had no instru- 
ments for doing this, except a crowbar, and, 
instead of pulling out the spikes, as we could 
have done with the pinch burrs used for that 
purpose by railroad men, we had to hatter them 
out. This was slow work. We had loosened 
this rail at one end, and eight of us took hold 
of it to try to pull the other end loose. Just as 



64 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

we were going to relinquisH the effort in 
despair, the whistle of an engine m pursuit sounded 
in our ears ! The effect was magical. With 
one convulsive effort we broke the rail in two, 
and tumbled pell-mell over the embankment. 
No one was hurt, and we took up our precious 
half rail, which insured us time to pass the 
train ahead, before our pursuers could be 
upon us. 

We were not a moment too soon, for we 
were scarcely out of sight of where we had 
taken up the last rail, before the other train 
met us. This was safely passed, and when our 
pursuers came to the place where we had 
broken the rail, they abandoned their own 
train, and ran on foot till they met the one we 
had just passed, and turned it back after us, 
running with great speed. 

We were now aware of our danger, and 
adopted every expedient we could think of to 
delay pursuit ; but, as we were cutting the wire 
near Calhoun, they came in sight of us. Then 
ensued the most terrible and thrilling chase 
ever known on the American continent. 

We instantly put our engine to full speed, 
and in a moment its wheels were striking fire 
from the rails in their rapid revolutions. The 
car in which we were, rocked furiously, and 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 65 

ttrew us from one side to the other like peas 
rattled in a gourd. Still on after us relentlessly 
came the pursuers. The smoke of their engine 
could be distinguished in every long reach, and 
the scream of their whistle sounded in our 
ears around every curve. It was still neces- 
sary for us to cut the wire, and, in order to 
gain time for that, we dropped a car on the 
track, and, soon after, another. This left us 
with only the locomotive, tender, and one bag- 
gage-car. Each time, when we stopped to cut 
the wire, we would try to take up another rail ; 
but before we could loosen its fastenings with 
our imperfect tools, the approach of our ene- 
mies would compel us to hasten on. 

The thought of a new expedient crossed my 
mind, which saved us for some time longer. It 
was to knock out the end of our car, and drop 
the rails on the track as^ we ran. Soon after, 
in one of our necessary stoppages to take care 
of the telegraph, we loaded on some cross ties, 
which we threw out in the same manner. One 
rail I reserved for a particular purpose. When 
we stopped again, I took it, placed one end 
under the track, and let the other project up- 
ward, jointing toward the advancing train. It 
was very nearly effectual. The engineer of the 
train in pursuit, who afterward visited us in 
6* 



66 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

prison, said that if it had been only one in^h 
"higher, nothing could have saved their train 
from wreck, because, being so dark and small, 
it was not noticed till too late to stop. How- 
ever, it was a little too low to hook in the bars 
of the cow-catcher, as I intended. 

Our enemies pursued us with great determi- 
nation. One man rode on the cow-catcher, and, 
springing off, would throw the obstructions 
from the track, and jump on again while they 
had merely checked the engine. So great was 
our velocity, that most of the ties we threw out 
bounced off the track; but the few that re- 
mained enabled us several times to get out of 
sight of them. When this was the case, we 
would stop, and again try to take up a rail, 
which would have given us leisure for the 
greater operation of burning a bridge. 

By this time we had a few more instruments, 
which Andrews and Wilson had simultaneously 
procured from a switch tender. We worked 
faithfully, but each time, before we had loosened 
a rail, the inexorable pursuers were again 
visible. 

I then proposed to Andrews a plan that af- 
forded a hope of final escape. It was to let our 
engineer take our engine on out of sight, while 
we hid on a curve after putting a tie on the 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 67 

track, and waited for tlie pursuing train to 
come up ; then, wlien they checked to remove 
the obstruction, we could rush on them, shoot 
every person on the engine, reverse it, and let 
it drive at will back as it came. It would have 
chased all the trains following, of which there 
were now two or three, back before it, ' and 
thus have stopped the whole pursuit for a time. 
This would have required quick work, and have 
been somewhat dangerous, as the trains were 
now loaded with soldiers; but it afforded a 
chance of success. Andrews said it was a good 
plan — looked all around, and then hurried to 
the engine, and I had no further opportunity 
of discussing the subject. After we were in 
prison, he said he was very sorry that we had 
not made the effort. 



68 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 



CHAPTEK V. 

Consternation Along the Route — Wood and Water — At- 
tempt to Fire the Train — Partial Failure — Message Sent 
to Chattanooga — Terrific Preparations — Abandon the 
Train — A Capital Error — In the Woods — A Thrilling Ac- 
count of the Chase from the Atlanta ** Southern Coji' 
federacy. ' ' 

All this time we were rushing through 
towns and villages at terrific speed. Some pas- 
sengers came down when they heard our 
whistle, to go aboard, but they all shrank back 
amazed when they saw us pass with the noise 
of thunder, and the speed of lightning. Still 
more were they astonished when they saw 
three other trains dashing by in close pursuit, 
and loaded with excited soldiers. Thus the 
break-neck chase continued through Dalton, 
Kinggold, and the other small towns on the 
route. 

But it soon became evident that it could not 
continue much longer. We had taken on wood 
and water before we were so closely pressed, 
but now our supply was nearly exhausted, and 
our pursuers were too close behind to permit us 
to replenish it. But before yielding, we re- 
solved to try one more expedient. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 69 

For this purpose, we broke open tlie forward 
end of the only box-car we had left, and with 
the fragments endeavored to kindle a fire in it. 
Had we succeeded, we would have detached 
it, left it burning on a bridge, and run on with 
the locomotive alone. But the fuel on the lat- 
ter was too nearly gone to afford us kindling 
wood, and the draught through the car, caused 
by our rapid motion, blew our matches out. 
At length we succeeded in kindling a small 
fire ; but the drizzling rain, which had been fall- 
ing all morning, blew in on it, and prevented it 
from burning rapidly enough to be of any 
service. 

Thus our last hope expired, and our magni- 
ficent scheme, on which we had so long thought 
and toiled, was a failure. But one thing more 
now remained — to save ourselves, if possible. 

We were within, perhaps, fifteen miles of 
Chattanooga, when we resolved to abandon the 
engine. Having made this resolve, we did not 
cut the telegraph wire, and then, for the first 
time, they succeeded in sending a message 
ahead of us. 

This was no serious detriment to us, but it 
raised the wildest excitement in Chattanooga. 
The women and children instantly fled from 
the town, and sought safety in the woods and 



fO DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

mountains. The whole military force, which 
was encamped near the place, came out, and 
selected an advantageous position to meet us. 
There they planted cannon, felled trees across 
the track, tore up the rails for some distance, 
and waited for our approach. Their orders 
were for them to make a general massacre — 
not to spare a single man. But we came not, 
and therefore they had no opportunity to dis- 
play their latent cruelty. 

It was at this point, when he saw every 
scheme we attempted to execute completely 
foiled, that Andrews' presence of mind, for a 
time, seemed to desert him. It was only fifteen 
miles across the country to the Tennessee river, 
and we could have reached it ahead of any oppo- 
sition, had we all stuck together. One man had 
a compas3, and with that, and Andrews' know- 
ledge of the country, we could have gained, and 
crossed the Tennessee, and struck into the 
mountains beyond, before the country could have 
been aroused around us. Once there, in those 
interminable forests, it would have been almost 
impossible for them to capture us, well armed 
as we were, before we could have reached the 
shelter of our army. But this was not done, 
and this last chance of escape was lost. 

The locomotive was run on till the wood and 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 71 

v/ater were completely exhausted, and the pur- 
fiiers plainly in view. Ttien Andrews gave tlie 
order for us to leave tlie train, disperse, and for 
every man to save himself, if he could. We 
obeyed, jumping off the train while still in mo- 
tion, and were soon making the best of our way 
through the tangled pines of Georgia. 

Before giving an account of our adventures in 
the woods, I will insert the following article 
from the " Southern Confederacy,^^ of April 15, 
1862, a paper published in Atlanta, Georgia, 
only three days after our adventure. This I 
purloined from the officer in charge of us, and 
carried concealed about my clothes all the time 
I remained in the South. It contains a good 
many errors of statement, particularly where it 
refers to our numbers and plans, but is valu- 
able as showing the estimate the rebels placed 
on our enterprise, and as giving their ideas of 
the chase. It also represents us as tearing up 
the railroad many more times than we did. In 
710 case did they take up rails behind, and lay 
them down before their train. This assertion 
was made to give Messrs. Fuller and Murphy 
more credit at our expense. So highly were 
the services of these gentlemen appreciated, that 
the Georgia State Legislature, in the fall of 
1862, gave them a vote of thanks, and recom- 



72 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

mended the Governor to grant them the highest 
offices in his gift. I do not know what they ac- 
tually did receive. 
Below is the account : 

THE GREAT RAILROAD CHASE ! 

The Most Extraordinary and Astounding Adven- 
ture of the War — Ihe Most Daring Under- 
tahing that Yayihees ever Planned or Attempted 
to Execute — Stealing an Engirie — Tearing up 
the Irach — Pursued on Foot^ on Hand- Cars, 
and Engines — Overtaken — A Scattering — The 
Capture — The Wonderful Energy of Messrs. 
Fuller, Murphy and Gain — Some Reflections^ 



<f c, &c. 



FULL PARTICULARS!! 



Since our last issue, we have obtained full 
particulars of the most thrilling railroad adven- 
ture that ever occurred on the American conti- 
nent, as well as the mightiest and most impor- 
tant in its results, if successful, that has been 
conceived by the Lincoln Government since the 
commencement of this war. Nothing on so 
grand a scale has been attempted, and nothing 
within the range of possibility could be con- 
ceived, that would fall with such a tremendous, 
crushing force upon us, as the accomplishment 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 73 

of the plans which were concocted and depend- 
ent on the execution of the one whose history 
we now proceed to narrate. 

Its reality — what was actually done — excels 
all the extravagant conceptions of the Arrow- 
Smith hoax, which fiction created such a pro- 
found sensation in Europe. 

To make the matter more complete and in- 
telligible, we will take our readers over the 
same history of the case which we related in 
our last, the main features of which are correct, 
but are lacking in details, which have since come 
to hand. 

We will begin at the breakfast-table of the 
Big Shanty Hotel at Camp McDonald, on the 
Western and Atlantic Eailroad, where several 
regiments of soldiers are now encamped. The 
morning mail and passenger train had left here 
at four A.M., on last Saturday morning, as 
usual, and had stopped there for breakfast. 
The conductor, William A. Fuller; the engi- 
neer, I. Cain, both of this city ; and the passen- 
gers were at the table, when some eight men, 
having uncoupled the engine and three empty 
box-cars next to it, from the passenger and bag- 
gage-cars, mounted the engine, pulled open the 
valve, put on all steam, and left conductor, 
engineer, passengers, spectators, and the sol- 
7 



74 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

diers in the camp hard by, all lost in amaze- 
ment, and dumbfounded at the strange, startling, 
and daring act. 

This unheard-of act was, doubtless, under- 
taken at that place and time upon the presump- 
tion that pursuit could not be made by an en- 
gine short of Kingston, some thirty miles above, 
or from this place ; and that by cutting down 
the telegraph wires as they proceeded, the ad- 
venturers could calculate on at least three or 
four hours' start of any pursuit it was rea- 
sonable to expect. This was a legitimate con- 
clusion, and but for the will, energy, and quick 
good judgment of Mr. Fuller, and Mr. Cain, 
and Mr. Anthony Murphy, the intelligent and 
practical foreman of the wood department of 
the State Eoad shop, who accidentally went on 
the train from this place that morning, their 
calculations would have worked out as origi- 
nally contemplated, and the results would have 
been obtained long ere this reaches the eye of 
our readers — the most terrible to us of any that 
we can conceive as possible, and unequaled by 
any attempted or conceived since this war com- 
menced. 

Now for the chase ! 

These three determined men, without a mo- 
ment's delay, put out after the flying train — 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 75 

on foot, amidst shouts of laughter by the crowd, 
who, though lost in amazement at the unex- 
pected and daring act, could not repress their 
risibility at seeing three men start after a train 
on foot, which they had just witnessed depart 
at lightning speed. They put on all their 
speed, and ran along the track for three miles, 
when they came across some track-raisers, who 
had a small truck- car, which is shoved along 
by men so employed on railroads, on which to 
carry their tools. This truck and men were at 
once '' impressed." They took it by turns of 
two at a time to run behind this truck, and 
push it along all up grades and level portions 
of the road, and let it drive at will on all the 
down grades. A little way further up the fu- 
gitive adventurers had stopped, cut the tele- 
graph wires, and torn up the track. Here the 
pursuers were thrown off pell mell, truck and 
men, upon the side of the road. Fortunately 
" nobody was hurt on our side." The truck was 
soon placed on the road again; enough hands 
were left to repair the track, and with all the 
power of determined will and muscle, they 
pushed on to Etowah Station, some twenty 
miles above. 

Here, most fortunately. Major Cooper's old 
coal engine, the '* Yonah" — one of the first en- 



76 BAKING AND SUFFERING; OR 

gines on the State road — was standing out, 
fired up. This venerable locomotive was im- 
mediately turned upon her own track, and like 
an old racer, at the tap of the drum, pricked up 
her ears and made fine time to Kingston. 

The fugitives, not expecting such earljr 
pursuit, quietly took in wood and water at 
Cass Station, and borrowed a schedule from 
the tank-tender, upon the plausible plea that 
they were running a pressed train, loaded with 
powder, for Beauregard. The attentive and 
patriotic tank-tender, Mr. William Kussell, 
said he gave them his schedule, and would 
have sent the shirt off his back to Beauregard, 
if it had been asked for. Here the adventurous 
fugitives inquired which end of the switch they 
should go in on at Kingston. When they ar- 
rived at Kingston, they stopped, went to the 
agent there, told the powder story, readily got 
the switch-key, went on the upper turn-out, 
and waited for the down way freight train to 
pass. To all inquiries they replied with the 
same powder story. When the freight train 
had passed, they immediately proceeded on to 
the next station — Adairsville — where they were 
to meet the regular down freight train. At 
some point on the way they had taken on some 
fifty cross-ties, and before reaching Adairsville, 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 77 

tliey stopped on a curve, tore up the rails, and 
put seven cross-ties on the track — no doubt 
intending to wreck this down freight train, 
which would be along in a few minutes. They 
had out upon the engine a red handkerchief, as 
a kind of flag or signal, which, in railroading, 
means another train is behind — thereby indica- 
ting to all that the regular passenger train 
would be along presently. They stopped a 
moment at Adairsville, and said Fuller, with 
the regular passenger train, was behind, and 
would wait at Kingston for the freight train, 
and told the conductor thereon to push ahead 
and meet him at that point. They passed on 
to Calhoun, where they met the down passen- 
ger train, due here at 4.20 P. M., and without 
making any stop, they proceeded — on, on, 
and on. 

But we must return to Fuller and his party, 
whom we have unconsciously left on the old 
" Yonah," making their way to Kingston. 

Arriving there, and learning the adventurers 
were but twenty minutes ahead, they left the 
*' Yonah" to blow off, while they mounted the 
engine of the Kome Branch Road, which was 
ready fired up, and waiting for the arrival of 
the passenger train nearly due, when it would 
have proceeded to Rome. A large party of 
7* 



78 DAKING AND SUFFERING; OR 

gentlemen volunteered for the chase, some 
at Acworth, Altoona, Kingston, and other 
points, taking such arms as they could lay 
their hands on at the moment ; and with this 
fresh engine they set out with all speed, but 
with great "care and caution," as they had 
scarcely time to make Adairsville, before the 
down freight train would leave that point. 
Sure enough, they discovered, this side of 
Adairsville, three rails torn up and other im- 
pediments in the way. They '' took up" in 
time to prevent, an accident, but could proceed 
with the train no further. This was most 
vexatious, and it may have been in some 
degree disheartening ; but it did not cause the 
slightest relaxation of efforts, and, as the result 
proved, was but little in the way of the dead 
game, pluck and resolutions of Fuller and 
Murphy, who left the engine and again put out 
on foot alone I After running two miles, they 
met the down freight train, one mile out from 
Adairsville. They immediately reversed the 
train, and ran backwards to Adairsville — put 
the cars on the siding, and pressed forward, 
making fine time to Calhoun, where they met 
the regular down passenger train. Here they 
halted a moment, took on board a telegraph 
operator, and a number of men who again vol- 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 79 

unteered, taking their guns along — and con- 
tinued the chase. Mr. Fuller also took on here 
a company of track-hands to repair the track 
as they went along. A short distance above 
Calhoun, they flushed -their game on a curve, 
where they doubtless supposed themselves out 
of danger, and were quietly oiling the engine, 
taking up the track, &c. Discovering that they 
were pursued, they mounted and sped away, 
throwing out upon the track as they went 
along, the heavy cross-ties they had prepared 
themselves with. This was done by breaking 
out the end of the hindmost box-car, and pitch- 
ing them out. Thus, ''nip and tuck," they 
passed with fearful speed Resaca, Tilton, and 
on through. Dalton. 

The rails which they had taken up last they 
took off with them — besides throwing out cross- 
ties upon the track occasionally — hoping thereby 
the more surely to impede the pursuit ; but all 
this was like tow to the touch of fire to the now 
thoroughly-aroused, excited, and eager pursuers. 
These men, though so much excited, and influ- 
enced by so much determination, still retained 
their well-known caution, were looking out for 
this danger, and discovered it, and though it 
was seemingly an insuperable obstacle to their 
making any headway in pursuit, was quickly 



80 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

overcome by the genius of Fuller and Murphy 
Coming to where the rails were torn up, they 
stopped, tore up rails behind them, and laid 
them down before, till they had passed over that 
obstacle. When the cross-ties were reached, 
they hauled to and threw them off, and thus 
proceeded, and under these difficulties gained 
on the frightened fugitives. At Dalton they 
halted a moment. Fuller put off the telegraph 
operator, with instructions to telegraph to Chat- 
tanooga to have them stopped, in case he should 
fail to overhaul them. 

Fuller pressed on in hot chase — sometimes in 
sight — as much to prevent their cutting the 
wires before the message could be sent, as to 
catch them. The daring adventurers stopped 
just opposite and very near to where Colonel 
Glenn's regiment is encamped, and cut the wires ; 
but the operator at Dalton had put the message 
through about two minutes before. They also 
again tore up the track, cut down a telegraph 
pole, and placed the two ends of it under the 
cross-ties, and the middle over the rail on the 
track. The pursuers stopped again, and got 
over this impediment in the same manner they 
did before — taking up the rails behind, and lay- 
ing them down before. Once over this, they 
shot on, and passed through the great tunnel 



THE GREAT KAILROAD ADVENTURE. 81 

at Tunnel Hill, being there only five minutes 
behind. The fugitives, thus finding themselves 
closely pursued, uncoupled two of the box-cars 
from the engine, to impede the progress of the 
pursuers. Fuller hastily coupled them to the 
front of his engine, and pushed them ahead of 
him, to the first turn-out or siding, where they 
were left, thus preventing the collision the ad- 
venturers intended. 

Thus the engine-thieves passed Kinggold, 
where they began to fag. They were out of 
wood, water, and oil. Their rapid running and 
inattention to the engine had melted all the 
brass from the journals. They had no time to 
repair or refit, for an iron-horse of more bottom 
was close behind. Fuller and Murphy, and 
their men, soon came within four hundred yards 
of them, when the fugitives jumped from the 
engine, and left it, three on the north side, and 
five on the south side ; all fleeing precipitately, 
and scattering through the thicket. Fuller and 
his party also took to the woods after them. 

Some gentleman, also well armed, took the 
engine and some cars of the- down passenger 
train at Calhoun, and followed up Fuller and 
Murphy and their party in the chase, but a 
short distance behind, and reached the place of 
the stampede but a very few moments after the 



82 

first pursuers did. A large number of men 
were soon mounted, armed, and scouring the 
country in search of them. Fortunately . there 
was a militia muster at Einggold. A great 
many countrymen were in town. Hearing of 
the chase, they put out on foot and on horse- 
back in every direction, in search of the daring, 
but now thoroughly frightened and fugitive 
men. 

We learn that Fuller, soon after leaving his 
engine, in passing a cabin in the country, found 
a mule, having on a bridle but no saddle, and 
tied to a fence. *' Here^s your mule^^ he shouted, 
as he leaped upon his back, and put out as fast 
as a good switch, well applied, could impart 
vigor to the muscles and accelerate the speed 
of the patient donkey. The cry of "Here's 
your mule," and "Where's my mule," have 
become national, and are generally heard when, 
on the one hand, no mule is about, and on the 
other when no one is hunting a mule. It seems 
not to be understood by any one, though it is 
a peculiar Confederate phrase, and is as popular 
as Dixie, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. 
It remained for Fuller, in the midst of this ex- 
citing chase, to solve the mysterious meaning 
of this national by-word or phrase, and give it 
a practical application. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 83 

All of the eight men were captured, and are 
now safely lodged in jail. The particulars of 
their capture we have not received. This we 
hope to obtain in time for a postscript to this, 
or for our second edition. They confessed that 
they belonged to Lincoln's army, and had been 
sent down from Shelby ville to burn the bridges 
between here and Chattanooga; and that the 
whole party consisted of nineteen men, eleven 
of whom were dropped at several points on the 
road as they came down, to assist in the burn- 
ing of the bridges as they went back. 

When the morning freight train which left 
this city reached Big Shanty, Lieutenant-Col- 
onels R F. Maddox and C. P. Phillips took the 
engine and a few cars, with fifty picked men, 
well armed, and followed on as rapidly as pos- 
sible. They passed over all difficulties, and 
got as far as Calhoun, where they learned the 
fugitives had taken the woods, and were pur- 
sued by plenty of men, with the means to 
catch them if it were possible. 

One gentleman who went upon the train from 
Calhoun, who has furnished us with many of 
these particulars, and who, by the way, is one 
of the most experienced railroad men in Geor- 
gia, says too much praise cannot be bestowed 
on Fuller and Murphy, who showed a cool 



84: DAKING AND SUFFERING; OR 

judgment and forethouglit in this extraordinary 
affair, unsurpassed by anything he ever knew in 
a railroad emergency. This gentleman, we 
learn from another, offered, on his own account, 
one hundred dollars reward on each man, for 
the apprehension of the villains. 

We do not know what Governor Brown will 
do in this case, or what is his custom in such 
matters ; but if such a thing is admissible, we 
insist upon Fuller and Murphy being promoted 
to the highest honors on the road ; if not by 
actually giving them the highest position, at 
least let them be promoted by brevet. Cer- 
tainly their indomitable energy, and quick, cor- 
rect judgment and decision in the many difficult 
contingencies connected with this unheard-of 
emergency, has saved all the railroad bridges 
above Ringgold from being burned ; the most 
daring scheme that this revolution has developed 
has been thwarted, and the tremendous results 
which, if successful, can scarcely be imagined, 
much less described, have been averted. Had 
they succeeded in burning the bridges, the ene- 
my at Huntsville would have occupied Chatta- 
nooga before Sunday night. Yesterday they 
would have been in Knoxville, and thus had 
possession of all East Tennessee. Our forces at 
Knoxville, Greenville, and Cumberland Gap, 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 85 

would, ere this, have been in the hands of the 
enemj. Lynchburg, Virginia, would have been 
moved upon at once. This would have given 
them possession of the Valley of Virginia, and 
Stonewall Jackson could have been attacked in 
the rear. They would have possession of the 
railroad leading to Charlottesville and Orange 
Court House, as well as the South Side Kail- 
road leading to Petersburg and Kichmond. 
They might have been able to unite with 
McClellan's forces, and attack Jo. Johnston's 
army, front and flank. It is not by any means 
improbable that our army in Virginia would 
have been defeated, captured, or driven out of 
the State this week. 

Then reinforcements from all the Eastern and 
Southeast portion of the country would have 
been cut off from Beauregard. The enemy 
have Huntsville now, and with all these designs 
accomplished, his army would have been effec- 
tually flanked. The mind and heart shrink 
appalled at the awful consequences that would 
have followed the success of this one act. When 
Fuller, Murphy, and Cain started from Big 
Shanty on foot, to cajiture that fugitive engine, they 
were involuntarily laughed at by the crowd, 
serious as the matter was — and to most observ- 
ers it was indeed most ludicrous; but that foot- 
8 



86 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

race saved us^ and prevented the consummation 
of these tremendous consequences. 

One fact we must not omit to mention, is the 
valuable assistance rendered by Peter Bracken, 
the engineer on the down freight train which 
Fuller and Murphy turned back. He ran his 
engine fifty and a half miles — two of them 
backing the whole freight train up to Adairs- 
ville — made twelve stops, coupled to the two 
cars which the fugitives had dropped, and 
switched them off on sidings — all this, in 
one hour and Jive nmiutes. 

We doubt if the victory of Manasses or 
Corinth were worth as much to us as the frus- 
tration of this grand coup c?' etat. It is not by 
any means certain that the annihilation of 
Beauregard's whole army at Corinth would be 
so fatal a blow to us as would have been the 
burning of the bridges at that time and by 
these men. 

When we learned by a private telegraph 
dispatch, a few days ago, that the Yankees had 
taken Huntsville, we attached no great import- 
ance to it. We regarded it merely as a dash- 
ing foray of a small party to destroy property, 
tear up the road, &c., a la Morgan. When an 
additional telegram announced the Federal force 
there to be from 17,000 to 20,000, we were 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 87 

inclined to doubt — though coming from a per- 
fectly honorable and upright gentleman, who 
would not be apt to seize upon a wild report to 
send here to his friends. The coming to that 
point with a large force, where they would be 
flanked on either side by our army, we re- 
garded as a most stupid and unmilitary act. 
We now understand it all. They were to 
move upon Chattanooga and Knoxville as soon 
as the bridges were burnt, and press on into 
Yirginia as far as possible, and take all our 
forces in that State in the rear. It was all the 
deepest laid scheme, and on the grandest scale, 
that ever emanated from the brains of any num- 
ber of Yankees combined. It was one that was 
also entirely practicable on almost any day for 
the last year. There were but two miscalcula- 
tions in the whole programme ; they did not 
expect men to start out afoot to pursue them, 
and they did not expect these pursuers on foot 
to find Major Cooper's old " Yonah" standing 
there all ready fired up. Their calculations on 
every other point were dead certainties, and 
would have succeeded perfectly. 

This would have eclipsed anything Captain 
Morgan ever attempted. To think of a parcel 
of Federal soldiers, ofi&cers and privates, coming 
down into the heart of the Confederate States — 



for they were here in Atlanta and at Marietta — 
(some of them got on the train at Marietta that 
morning, and others were at Big Shanty ;) of 
playing such a serious game on the State Eoad, 
which is under the control of our prompt, ener- 
getic and sagacious Governor, known as such 
all over America; to seize the passenger train 
on his road, right at Camp McDonald, where he 
has a number of Georgia regiments encamped, 
and run off with it ; to burn the bridges on the 
same road, and to go safely through to the 
Federal lines — all this would have been a fea- 
ther in the cap of the man or men who exe- 
cuted it. 

Let this be a warning to the railroad men 
and everybody else in the Confederate. States. 
Let an engine never be left alone a moment. 
Let additional guards be placed at our bridges. 
This is a matter we specially urged in the Con- 
federacy long ago. We hope it will now be 
heeded. Further, let a sufficient guard be 
placed to watch the government stores in this 
city ; and let increased vigilance and watchful- 
ness be put forth by the watchmen. We know 
one solitary man who is guarding a house in 
this city, which contains a lot of bacon. Two 
or three men could throttle and gag him, and 
Bet fire to the house at any time ; and worse, he 



THE GKEAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 89 

conceives that there is no necessity for a guard, 
as he is sometimes seen off duty for a few mo- 
ments, fully long enough for an incendiary to 
burn the house he watches. Let Mr. Shakel- 
ford, whom we know to be watchful and atten- 
tive to his duties, take the responsibility at 
once of placing a well-armed guard of sufficient 
force around every house containing government 
stores. Let this be done without waiting for 
instructions from Kichmond. 

One other thought. The press is requested 
by the Government to keep silent about the 
movements of the army, and a great many 
things of the greatest interest to our people. 
It has, in the main, patriotically complied. We 
have complied in most cases, but our judgment 
was against it all the while. The plea is that 
the enemy will get the news if it is published 
in our papers. Now, we again ask, what's the 
use ? The enemy get what information they 
want. They are with us and pass among us 
almost daily. They find out from us what they 
want to know, by passing through our country 
unimpeded. It is nonsense — it is folly, to 
deprive our own people of knowledge they are 
entitled to and ought to know, for fear the ene- 
my will find it out. We ought to have a regu- 
lar system of passports over all our roads, and 
8* 



90 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

refuse to let any man pass who could not give a 
good account of himself, come well vouched 
for, and make it fully appear that he is not an 
enemy, and that he is on legitimate business. 
This would keep information from the enemy 
far more effectually than any reticence of the 
press, which ought to lay before our people the 
full facts in everything of a public nature. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 91 



CHAPTER VI. 

stupendous "Man Hunt" — My Own Adventures — Play- 
ing Acrobat — Perilous Crossing of a River — Hunger — 
The Bloodhounds — Flying for Life — No Sun or Star to 
Guide me — Traveling in a Circle — Nearing Chattanooga 
— Lost in Deadened Timber — Glimpse of the Moon — 
Fatigue Produces Phantoms — Dreadful Storm — I Sleep 
and enter Fairy Land — Glorious Visions — Reality — 
A Picket — Romance Faded — Horrible Situation — Day 
Dawn— No Relief. 

On leaving the train, I confess for a moment 
my heart sunk within me. I was alone, for no 
one happened to strike off in the same direc- 
tion I did. I knew not where I was — whether 
fifteen or fifty miles from Chattanooga* — 
neither had I the most indefinite idea of the 
lay of the country. I only knew that north 
or northwest would bring me to our forces; 
but the sun did not shine, to give me even the 
points of the compass. 

I supposed that the country would be 
aroused, and a vigorous pursuit made, but my 

*The description of places and distances given in the 
preceding chapter, was mostly obtained from Confeder- 
ates, who afterward visited and talked with us. 



92 

worst anticipations proved far short of the real- 
ity. It was Saturday, the 12th of April, and 
was a general muster-day for the conscripts 
over the whole country ; but as soon as the 
news of our raid was received, drill was sus- 
pended, and every one turned out in search of 
us. Then was organized the most stupendous 
man-hunt that ever took place in the South. 
Horsemen hurried at full speed along every 
road, and proclaimed the news as they went. 
Each planter, with his dependents, for at least 
fifty miles in every direction, took his blood- 
hounds and scoured the woods. Every cross- 
road, every river, ford, or ferry, was at once 
picketed by bodies of cavalry. Large rewards 
were offered, and thousands of soldiers pursued 
us, in addition to the universal uprising of the 
citizens. The only partially known object of 
the expedition imparted a tone of romantic ex- 
aggeration to it, and made the people doubly 
anxious to solve the mystery. The feeling in 
northern Georgia may be best conceived by 
imagining what would be the excitement in the 
immediate vicinity, if a party of Confederates 
would seize a train near Philadelphia, and at- 
tempt to run it through Baltimore, especially 
if the movements of their armies should be 



THE GEEAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 93 

such as would lead to tlie belief tliat this was 
only ^ar^ of a grand scheme ! 

I will now give a personal sketch of my own 
adventures after leaving the train. It was still 
moving when I jumped ofi", — fast enough to 
make me perform several inconvenient gyra- 
tions on reaching the ground. Most of the 
party were ahead of me. Three had taken the 
ciistern side of the road, and the remainder the 
opposite side. I followed the example of the 
latter, and soon reached the cover of the stunted 
pines that grew near the road. Feeling the 
necessity of getting away as far as possible 
before the enemy could pursue us on foot, I 
struck off at a rapid rate. 

Soon I passed the little brook that ran along 
the foot of the hill, and pressed on up its steep 
side. There were three of my comrades not far 
from me on the left, but I could not overtake 
them, and still proceeded alone. I knew that 
pursuit would be rapid and instantaneous. I 
seemed to hear the tread of cavalry in every 
breeze that sighed through the branches of the 
naked forest ! 

The country was rough and uneven. On the 
bottoms, and by the streams, were a few pines ; 
but on the mountain spurs, which here are a 
low continuation of the Cumberland range, the 



94 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

timber is mostly oak and other varieties, 
which were not then in foliage. This was a 
great disadvantage, because it left no hiding 
place, and exposed us to the view of the watch- 
ful eyes of our enemies. 

Soon I found myself in the bend of a little 
river that empties into the Tennessee at Chat- 
tanooga. It was swollen by continuous rains, 
and for some time I searched along its bank for 
a place to cross the turbulent stream; but, 
seeing none, and believing that death was be- 
hind, I committed myself to its angry current, 
and, after being thoroughly soaked, and almost 
washed away, I succeeded in reaching the op- 
posite side. Here the bank rose in an almost 
perpendicular precipice of more than a hundred 
feet in hight. I dared not recross the stream, 
for I knew the enemy could not be far behind, 
and, therefore, I clambered up the precipice. 
Several times when near the top did I feel my 
grasp giving way ; but as often did some bush 
or projecting rock afford me the means of 
saving myself. At last, after the most immi- 
nent danger, I reached the top utterly ex- 
hausted, pulled myself out of sight, and 
breathed for a while. 

I had had no breakfast or dinner, and had spent 
not only that day, but many preceding ones, in 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 95 

the most fatiguing exertion. I was very faint 
and sick, and almost out of hope. I had no 
guide even in the direction of home, for the sun 
still lingered behind an impenetrable veil. 

While I thus lay and mused on the unenvi- 
able situation in which I found myself placed, 
a sound reached my ears that again sent the 
blood leaping wildly through my veins. It 
was the distant baying of a bloodhound ! Never 
again will I read the story of human beings, 
of any color, pursued by these revolting instru- 
ments of man's most savage '' inhumanity to 
man," with indifference ! 

I started to my feet, and a few moments' lis- 
tening confirmed my first impression. It was 
true. They were after us with their blood- 
hounds! not one pack alone, but all in the 
country, as the widening circle, from which 
echoed their dismal baying, revealed but too 
plainly. There was no longer safety in idleness, 
and I at once started up, and hurried off, as 
nearly at right angles to the railroad as I could 
ascertain by the whistling of the trains, which 
seemed to be moving in great numbers, 
and much excited. The fearful barking of the 
dogs also gave me a clue to avoid them. 
Faint and weak as I was, excitement supplied 
the place of strength, and I rapidly placed a 



96 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

considerable distance between myself and pur- 
suers. 

Away across the liills and streams I sped, I 
knew not how far — I only knew that the noise of 
the dogs grew fainter and fainter as the evening 
wore on. I had distanced them, and began to 
breathe freer. I even indulged the hope of 
being able ultimately to work my way to the 
lines, and still think I might have done so, had 
the weather been clear enough to permit my 
traveling by the sun or stars. 

As I descended the long slope of a wooded 
hill into a wild, solitary valley, I saw a rude 
hut, and a man in the garden beside it. I ap- 
proached him to inquire the road to Chattanoo- 
ga, though that was the last place I wished to 
go. The answer was, that it was only eight 
miles. This was nearer than I liked to be, as I 
rightly judged the pursuit would be most vigor- 
ous in that vicinity. However, I continued 
my journey in that direction, until out of sight, 
and then climbed up the hill at right angles to my 
former course. I traveled this way for some 
time, when an incident occurred that would have 
been amusing, had it been less vexatious. 

I had often heard that persons who were lost 
would naturally travel in a circle, but did not 
attach a great deal of credit to the assertion. 



THE GEE AT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 97 

Now I had the proof. I had crossed a road, and 
left it for something like an hour, during which 
time I walked very fast, when, to my surprise, I 
came to the same place again. 

I was considerably annoyed to thus lose my 
labor, but struck over the hill in what I sup- 
posed to be the right direction. Judge of my as- 
tonishment when, after an hour or more of hard 
walking, I found myself at precisely the same 
spot again 1 So much time had been lost, that 
I now could hear the bloodhounds once more. 
I was perplexed beyond measure. A few steps 
further brought me to the same river I had crossed 
hours before. In sheer desperation I took the 
first road I came to, and followed it a long time, 
almost regardless of where it should lead, or 
whom I should meet. 

Thus I pressed forward till twilight was 
deepening into darkness, when I met a negro 
driving a team. From him I learned that I 
was within four miles of Chattanooga ; words 
can not describe the tide of vexation, disap- 
pointment, and anger that swept over my 
breast, when I found that in spite of my most 
determined efforts I was steadily approaching 
the lion's mouth. But it was no use to give 
way to despair. Learning from the negro the 
direction of both Binggold and Chattanooga, 
9 



I resolved to make an effort to reach the Ten- 
nessee river some eight or ten miles below 
Chattanooga. For this purpose, I struck across 
the fields in the proper course. 

For some time now I did well enough, but 
before long I came to a large field of deadened 
timber. When I had crossed this, I was again 
completely lost. Soon, however, I reached a 
road which seemed to lead right, which I fol- 
lowed with renewed vigor for several miles. 
At last I met three men on horseback ; it was 
too dark to tell whether they were negroes or 
white men, but I ventured to ask them : 

" How far is it to Chattanooga ? 

^' Three miles /" 

" Is this the road ?" 

'' Yes, sah ! right aheadP 

I had afterwards reason to believe that these 
were men sent out to arrest us, and that they 
did not stop me just because I was going right 
to Chattanooga ! 

But it was evident that I was again on the 
wrong road. Indeed, it seemed as if I was so 
hopelessly bewildered that it was impossible 
for me to travel any hut the wrong road. As 
soon as the horsemen got out of sight, I turned 
and followed them three or four miles, when I 
came %q a largp rpad running at right an^lps« 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 99 

with my own, which terminated where it joined 
the other. I deliberated for some time as to 
which end of this new road I should take. I 
had no guide to direct me, for my old road was 
too crooked even to give me the direction of 
the dreaded Chattanooga. 

Many a time have I wished for a sight of the 
moon and stars. Long before the clash of 
arms was heard in our land, before the thunder 
and the wailing of battle had filled a nation 
with weeping, have I waited and wished for the 
parting away of the tedious clouds, that, with 
my telescope, I might gaze on the wonders and 
beauties of the worlds above. But never did I 
bend a more anxious eye to the darkened firma- 
ment, than in my solitary wanderings over the 
Georgia hills that memorable night. But all 
in vain ; no North Star appeared to point with 
beam of hope to the land of the free. 

At length I started off* on the road that 
I thought most likely to lead me in the 
right direction ; but as usual I had the misfor- 
tune of being wrong; for after I had gone a 
long distance, the moon broke through a rift in 
the clouds, and for a moment poured her 
light down on the dark forest through which I 
was passing. That one glance was enough to 
show me that I was heading back toward the 



100 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

railroad I had left in the morning. Wearily I 
turned and retraced my tedious steps. 

One of my feet had been injured by an acci- 
dent three mouths before, and now pained me 
excessively. Still I dragged myself along. 
My nerves had become completely exhausted 
by the long-continued tension they had sus- 
tained, and now played me many fantastic 
tricks, which became more vivid as the night 
waned away. I passed the place where I had 
made the wrong choice of roads, and still 
toiled on. 

The rain fell in torrents now. I was thinly 
clad, and as the wind, which was blowing quite 
hard, drove the falling showers against me, my 
teeth chattered, and I shivered to the bone. 
I passed many houses, and feared the barking 
of the dogs might betray me to watchers 
within ; but my fears were groundless. The 
storm, which was then howling fearfully through 
the trees, served to keep most of those who 
sought our lives, within doors. Even the bark- 
ing of the bloodhounds was heard but seldom, 
and then far in the distance. I seemed to have 
the lonely, fearful, stormy night to myself. 

At last all thoughts gave way to the impera- 
tive necessity of repose. I reeled to a large 
log that lay by the side of the road, on the edge 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 101 

of a small patch of woodland, and crawling close 
under the side of it, not for shelter from the 
driving rain, but for concealment from my worse- 
dreaded human foes, I slept in peace. 

Up to this time the image of that terrible 
night is graven on my memory with a scorching 
pen of fire. After this it changes, and with the 
exception of a few real incidents that aroused 
me from my trance, it floats before me in more 
than the voluptuous splendor of an opium- 
dream. The cause of this change is a curious 
chapter in mental philosophy. It was no doubt 
purely physical, resulting from want of sleep, 
fatigue, dampness, lack of food, and intense 
mental exertion. But let me narrate facts. 

When I awoke, it was with a full realization 
of my position. But in addition to this, I seemed 
to hear some one whisper, as plainly as ever I 
heard human voice : 

'' Shoot him ! shoot him ! Let us shoot him 
before he wakes !" 

My first impression was, that a party of rebels 
had discovered my hiding-place, and were about 
to murder me in my sleep, to save themselves 
further trouble. But the next thought brought 
a new suspicion, and I cautiously opened my 
eyes to test it, and see if my senses were really 
playing false. 
9* 



102 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

Directly before me stood a small tree. The 
first glance showed a tree and nothing more. 
The next showed a score of angels, all clad in 
softest outlines, their heads nodding with feath- 
ery plumes above all beauty, and their wings 
slowly waving with borders of violet and pearl. 
The whole forest was suddenly transformed into 
a paradise of radiant glory, in which moved ce- 
lestial beings of every order, all instinct with 
life, blushing with love, and bending their 
kindest regards on me. Ladies, too, were there, 
fairer than ever walked the fields of earth, em- 
bowered in roses ; little cherubs with laughing 
faces, on cloudlets of amber and gold, floated 
around. Indeed, all that the imagination could 
conceive of beauty was comprised in that one 
gorgeous, glorious vision. 

The most singular fact of all was, that al- 
though the brain and eye were thus impressed 
with that which had no real existence, I was 
perfectly calm and self-possessed, knowing the 
whole thing to be but a pleasing illusion. I did 
not in the least fear these figures of the brain, 
but on the contrary found them pleasant com- 
pany. Not always, however, did they perso- 
nate the same characters. Occasionally they 
would change to- the old feudal knights, some- 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 103 

times on horseback, sometimes on foot, but 
always clad in glittering armor. 

The finest landscapes would start up from the 
cold, dull hills around, like mirages in the 
desert; panoramas of the most vivid action 
passed before me ; even language was not denied 
to my visitants, whose voices were inexpressi- 
bly melodious; every thought that passed 
through my mind seemed sounded audibly at 
my side. 

Thus through the visions of night and dark- 
ness I passed rapidly on, for now I felt re- 
freshed and endowed with new strength. Even 
the merciless pelting of the cold rain seemed 
pleasant and luxurious as a cool bath in the 
parching heats of harvest. But beyond these 
illusions, another faculty seemed to penetrate 
and show me, though but dimly, the true face 
of the country. 

Once the two became mingled, and very 
nearly involved me in a serious difficulty. At a 
cross-road, a considerable distance ahead, I saw 
what I at first supposed to be some more of my 
spectral friends, standing around a fire, the 
ruddy blaze of which served to render them 
clearly visible. They were not quite so beauti- 
ful as those I had seen before, but still I ad- 
vanced carelessly toward them, and would pro- 



104: DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

bably have continued to do so, until too late for 
retreat, had not my progress been arrested by a 
sound of all others the least romantic. It was 
the squealing of a pig they had caught, and 
were killing, preparatory to roasting in the fire. 

This at once drove away the seraphs and the 
angels, and left me in full possession of my 
faculties. I listened, and soon became convinced 
that they were a picket, sent out there to watch 
for just such persons as myself They had some 
dogs with them, which, fortunately, were too 
much absorbed in the dying agonies of the poor 
pig to give attention to me. 

I crawled cautiously away, and made a long 
circuit through the fields. A dog made himself 
exceedingly annoying by following and barking 
after me. I did not apprehend danger from 
him, for I yet had my trusty revolver, and had 
managed to keep it dry all the time ; but I feared 
he would attract the attention of the picket, who 
might easily have captured me, for I was too 
weary to elude them. 

At last he left me, and I again returned to 
the road. I had not gone far till I came to 
three horses hobbled down, which, no doubt, 
belonged to the picket behind, and had to make 
another circuit to avoid driving them away 
before me. On again reaching the road, I 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 105 

pressed on as fast as possible^ hoping, before the 
morning light, to be beyond the circle of 
guarded roads, and the line of planters who 
were scouring the woods with their dogs. It 
was a vain hope, but I knew not then the gi- 
gantic plan of search which had been organized. 

The visions which had made the lonely 
forest almost a paradise, now grew dimmer and 
dimmer. The roses faded, and all the forms of 
beauty vanished into thin air. 

The chill horror of my situation froze deeper 
into my veins. I would find myself walking 
along, almost asleep, then would wander a short 
distance from the road to a secluded spot, 
— throw mj^self down on the flooded ground, 
and sleep a few minutes ; then would awaken, 
almost drowned by the pitiless rain, and so 
sore and benumbed that I could scarcely stagger 
to my feet, and plod onward. 

Thus that dreary night wore on ; it seemed 
an age of horror, and placed a shuddering gulf 
between my present life and the past. But at 
last the cold gray of a clouded morning broke 
through the weeping sky. Day brought no 
relief. Every one 1 saw seemed to be a foe. 
Still I did not avoid them. I carefully washed 
all traces of that terrible night from my clothes. 
The wet did not matter, for the rain was still 
falling fast enough to account for that. 



106 DAKING AND SUFFEKING ; OR 



CHAPTEK YII. 

Sabbath — Continuous Rain — Press Onward — Observed — 
Arrested — Curious Examination — Equivocating for Life 
— Plans Foiled by Unexpected News — Plundered — Jail — 
Terrible Reflections — New and Hopeful Resolve — Un- 
welcome Visitors — Vigilance Committee Disappointed 
— Ordered to Chattanooga — A Mob — Chained to the 
Carriage — Escort — The Journey — Musings — Arrival — 
Another Mob — Benevolent Gentleman (?) — General 
Leadbetter — Andrews. 

It was Sabbatli morning, but it came not to 
me with the blessed calmness and peace that 
accompany it in my own sweet Ohio. I saw the 
people going to church, and longed to go with 
them, but dared not encounter the prying eyes 
that would have greeted a stranger, even if I 
had wished thus to loiter on my journey. 

But why should I dwell longer on this dreary 
morning? why linger over its miseries, deep- 
ened by the faintness of the hope that they 
would ever cease, and give me again to the 
comfort and love of home ? I wandered on till 
about noon, when I was observed by some one 
on the watch for strangers. This was just be- 
yond Lafayette, Georgia. A party of pursuit 
was at once organized numbering twenty or 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 107 

more. I knew nothing of my danger, till they 
were within about fifty yards of me, when they 
ordered me to stop. 

I put my hand on my pistol, and looked 
round. The country was level and open for 
some distance, and I was too weary to run, 
even if some of the party had not been 
mounted ; therefore I made a virtue of neces- 
sity, and stopped, asking what they wanted. 
They replied that they wanted to talk with me 
awhile. Soon they came up, and a little, con- 
ceited man, who had the epaulets of a lieu- 
tenant, but whom they called major, undertook 
to question me. He was very bland about it, 
and apologized hugely for interrupting me, but 
said if I was a patriotic man, as he had no 
doubt I was, I would willingly undergo a 
slight inconvenience for the good of the Con- 
federacy. I endeavored to imitate his polite- 
ness, and begged him to proceed in the per- 
formance of his duty, assuring him that he 
would find nothing wrong. He then searched 
me very closely for papers, looking over my 
money and pistol, but found nothing suspi- 
cious. 

He next asked me who I was, where I came 
from, and where I was going. I told him that 
I was a citizen of Kentucky, who had been dis- 



108 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

gusted with tlie tyranny of Lincoln, and was 
ready to light against it ; that I came to Chatta- 
nooga, but would not enlist at that place, be- 
cause most of the troops there were conscripts, 
and the few volunteers were very poorly armed. 
I told him all about where I had been in Chat- 
tanooga, and the troops there, for I had heard a 
good deal said about them as I went down on 
the cars to Marietta, on the previous Friday 
evening. I had also heard them praising the 
First Georgia, which was with Beauregard, and 
now told the Major that I wanted to join it. 
He then asked why I did not proceed at once 
to Corinth, without going so far around the 
country. I alleged that General Mitchel was 
in the way at Huntsville, and that I was merely 
making a circuit far enough around to be out 
of the danger of capture. 

This seemed to be perfectly satisfactory to 
the little man, and turning to the crowd he 
said : 

" We may as well let this fellow go on, for he 
seems to be all right." 

These words rejoiced me, but my joy was 
premature. A dark-complexioned man, who 
sat on his horse, with his hat drawn down over 
his brows, raised his eyes slowly, and drawled 
out : 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 109 

* Well, J e-s ! Perhaps we'd as well take 
him back to town, and if all's right, maybe we 
can help him on to Corinth." 

This was rather moro help than I wanted, but 
it was useless to demur. 

They conducted me to the largest hotel in 
the place, where I was received very kindly. 
Soon a number of lawyers came in, and com- 
menced asking me all kinds of hard questions. 
I answered as well as I could. When I told 
tliem I was from Kentucky, they wished to 
know the county. I told them Fleming. 
Then they asked the county seat. This also I 
was able to give ; but when they required me 
to give the counties which bounded it, I was 
nonplussed. I mentioned a few at random, but 
suspect most of them were wrong. They said 
it looked suspicious to find a man who could 
not bound his own county, but proceeded in 
their examination. 

They requested a narrative of my journey all 
the way through from Kentucky. This I gave 
very easily, as long as it was on ground that 
was not accessible to them ; but it sorely puzzled 
me to account for the time I had been on the 
railroad, and for the last night, which I spent 
in the woods. I had to ijivent families with 
whom I stayed — tell the number of children and 
10 



110 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

servants at eacli, and all the particulars. This 
was rather perilous, as many of my auditors 
knew all the country around which I was thus 
fancifully populating ; but I had no alternative. 
I might have refused to answer at all, but this 
would have been construed into positive proof 
of guilt — at least as good as a moh would have 
required. Besides, I still had a faint hope that 
they might be induced to release me, and allow 
me to continue my journey. As it was, my as- 
surance puzzled them somewhat, and they held 
numerous private consultations. 

But while they were thus deliberating over 
my case, and could only agree that it needed 
further investigation, a man, riding a horse 
covered with foam, dashed up to the door. He 
came from Ringgold, and brought the news 
that part of the bridge-burners had been cap- 
tured, and that they had at first pretended to be 
citizens of Keyduchy^ from Fleming county, — but, 
on finding that this did not procure their re- 
lease, they confessed that they were Ohio sol- 
diers, sent out to burn the bridges on the 
Georgia State Road. 

The remarkable coincidence of their first 
story with the one I had been trying so hard 
to make the rebels believe, produced a marked 
change in their conduct toward me. They at 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. Ill 

once adjourned to another room, and, after a 
brief consultation, agreed to commit me to jail 
to await further developments. 

The little major was my escort. He first 
purloined my money, then took me to the 
county jail and handed me over to the jailor. 
This personage took my penknife and other 
little articles, — then led me up stairs, — unfas- 
tened the door of a cage of crossing iron bars, 
in which was one poor fellow — a Union man, 
as I afterward found — and bade me enter. My 
reflections could not have been more gloomy if 
the celebrated inscription, Dante, placed over 
the gates of hell, had been written above the 
massive iron door. 

*' All hope abandon, ye who enter here." 

My feelings were terrible when the jailor 
turned the key in the lock, secured the heavy 
iron bar that crossed the door, and left me. 
Never before had I been locked up as a pris- 
oner, and now it was no trivial matter — a few 
days or weeks. There was absolutely no hope 
ahead. I was there as a criminal, and too well 
did I realize the character of the Southern 
people, to believe that they would be fastidious 
about proof Life is held too cheap in that 
country to cause them a long delay in its dis- 
posal. 



> 



112 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

In that hour, my most distressing thought 
was of my friends at home, and particularly of 
my mother — thinking what would be their 
sorrow when they heard of my ignominious 
fate — if indeed they ever heard, for I had given 
an assumed name. That all my young hopes 
and ambitions, my fond dreams of being useful, 
should perish, as I then had no doubt they 
would, on a Southern scaffold, seemed unbear- 
able in the extreme. But only one moment 
did these thoughts sweep over me; the next 
they were rejected as not calculated to profit in 
the least. My first action was to borrow from 
my Union companion his blankets, of which he 
had a plentiful supply, and wrap myself in 
them. The warmth they produced soon threw 
me into a deep sleep, — profound and dreamless, 
— such as only extreme fatigue can afford. 

I awoke hours after, feeling much refreshed, 
but did not at first realize where I was ; yet a 
glance at the woven bars which everywhere 
bounded me in, brought back the knowledge 
that I was a prisoner ; but I did not give way 
to useless despair. I was almost amused at the 
quaint, yet truthful remark my fellow-prisoner 
made to me. Said he : 

"If you are innocent of the charge they have 
against you, there is no hope for you. But if 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 113 

it is true, you may save yourself by telling 
what regiment and company you belong to, and 
claiming protection as a United States prisoner 
of war." 

I thought a good deal over this opinion, and 
became more and more impressed with its wis- 
dom. It contained a truth that I could not 
gainsay. To hang a poor stranger in the South 
would be a common-place affair — only what 
was often done by the Southerners before the 
war began. In fact, they did kill a man at Dal- 
ton, under circumstances of the greatest cruelty, 
because he cheered as we dashed through the 
town. Afterward they found out that the man 
was as good a rebel as any of them, and had 
merely cheered because he thought we, too, were 
rebels ; then they set the matter right by apo- 
logizing to his friends ! 

It was quite different in the case of our sol- 
diers. If they were murdered, there was an 
unpleasant probability that some of the chivalry 
themselves would have to suffer in retaliation. 
Besides, I reflected with a glow of hope, the 
first I experienced since I fell into their hands, 
that our government held a number of rebels, 
who had been taken in Missouri on a similar 
expedition. All day and night I mused on 
these things, and endeavored to come to such a 
10* 



114 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

decision as would be for the best. When I 
heard of the capture of many of our party, and 
the announcement of the regiments to which they 
belonged, showing that they had been influenced 
by the same considerations I had been revolving, 
I at once determined to rest my fate on my 
claim as a United States soldier. I believe 
that this decision ultimately saved my life. 

All this time I was not in loneliness. Throngs 
of Georgians came in to see the caged Yankee 
— both ladies and gentlemen. Many were the 
odd remarks they made, criticising every fea- 
ture, and not a few adding every possible word 
of insult. The whole day they crowded in, and 
I was glad when the approach of night put an 
end to the annoyance. 

The coarse food the jailor brought was eaten 
with such a relish as hunger only can impart. 
I was fortunate in respect to quantity, for my 
companion was not well, and could not eat 
much ; but I atoned for his shortcoming by 
eating both of our allowances without difliculty. 

In the morning, they took me before a self- 
constituted committee of vigilance. These com- 
mittees were very common in the South, and 
still more summary in their modes of ad- 
ministering justice, or rather vengeance, than 
were the celebrated vigilance committees of San 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 115 

Francisco, in the early history of the gold mines. 
They were prepared with a board of the most emi- 
nent lawyers in the vicinity, and no doubt hoped 
to entangle me still more deeply in the meshes 
of contradiction than they did the day before. 
But I cut the whole matter short by saying : 

" Gentlemen, the statements I gave you yes- 
terday were intended to deceive you. I will 
now tell you the truth." 

The clerk got his pen ready to take down the 
information. 

*' Go on, sir ; go on," said the president. 

" I am ready," said I, " to give you my true 
name and regiment, and to tell you why I came 
into your country." 

" Just what we want, sir. Go on," said they. 

"But," I returned, "I will make no state- 
ment whatever, until taken before the regular 
military authority of this department." 

This took them by surprise, and they used 
every threat and argument in their power to 
induce me to change my purpose, but in vain. 
My reason for this, was to avoid the violence of 
mob law. While in the hands of the populace, 
there was danger of the summary infliction of 
punishment that the military authorities could 
disavow, if our government threatened retalia- 
tion. But if I was once under the regular 



116 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

military jurisdiction, they would be responsible 
both to the United States and to the civilized 
world. 

When they found that I would tell them 
nothing further, they made arrangements to 
take me to Chattanooga, which was distant 
twenty miles. It was the same to Einggold, 
near which we abandoned the train. Thus it 
will be seen that in that long and terrible night 
I had traveled twenty miles in a straight line, 
and, with my meanderings, must have walked 
fifty. 

I was remanded to the jail to wait for the 
preparation of a suitable escort. Here I re- 
mained till after dinner, when I was guarded by 
about a dozen men to the public square. A 
carriage was in waiting, in which I was placed, 
and then commenced the process of tying and 
chaining^. 

A great mob gathered around, completely 
filling the whole square, and was exceedingly 
angry and excited. They questioned me in 
loud and imperious tones, demanding why I 
came down there to fight them, and adding 
every possible word of insult. I heard many 
significant hints about getting ropes, and the 
folly of taking me down to Chattanooga, when 
I could be hanged just as well there. 



THE GEEAT KAILEOAD ADVENTUKE. 117 

However, as the mob grew more violent in 
their denunciations, I selected some of the more 
intelligent ones and addressed them. They 
answered with curses ; but in the very act of 
cursing, they grew milder and more willing to 
converse. I was not very much in the humor 
for talking, but following the dictates of policy 
rather than inclination, I answered their innuen- 
does merrily, and soon had some of the laugh- 
ers on my side. Before long, I heard some of 
them say, " Pity he is a Yankee, for he seems to 
be a good fellow." This was gratifying, and 
we were soon ready to start. 

I had been secured in such a manner as to make 
assurance doubly sure. A heavy chain was put 
around my neck and fastened by a padlock ; the 
other end was hitched to one foot, and secured 
in the same manner ; the chain beino: extended 
to its full length, while I was in a sittmg posi- 
tion, making it impossible for me to rise. — 
My hands were tied together; my elbows 
were pinioned to my side by ropes; and, to 
crown all, I was firmly bound to the carriage 
seat ! 

My evil genius, the little major, took the seat 
beside me as driver. He was armed to the 
teeth. Two other officers on horseback, like- 
wise fully armed, constituted the rest of the 



118 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

guard that was thought necessary to attend one 
chained and helpless Yankee. Oh ! spirit of 
chivalry ! how art thou fallen ! No longer one 
brave Southern knight a match for eight or ten 
Northern mudsills ; but three well-armed offi- 
cers to guard one chained Union soldier ! The 
same exaggerated caution I frequently noticed 
afterward. There seemed to be a perpetual 
fear on the minds of the miscreants that we were 
about to do something desperate. 

As we .journeyed along, the sky, which for 
days had been overcast, and, during that time, 
had hardly afforded us a glimpse of its celestial 
blue, became suddenly clear. The sun shone 
out in beauty, and smiled on the first faint 
dawnings of spring that lay in tender green on 
the surrounding hills. I am ever very sensi- 
tive to the influences of nature in all its phases, 
and now felt my spirit grow more light as I 
breathed the fresh air, and listened to the sing- 
ing of the birds. 

My companions were quite talkative, and 
though I hated them for the indignity they had 
thus put upon me in chaining me as a criminal, 
yet I knew it would be unavailing to indulge 
a surly and vindictive disposition, and there- 
fore talked as fast and as lively as they could. 

My guards, themselves, did not subject me to 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 119 

any insults, and even endeavored to prove that 
the extraordinary manner in which I was bound 
was a compliment to me. I could not see it in 
that light, and would have willingly excused 
the tying and the compliment together ! The 
worst was that when they passed any house 
they would call out, " We've got a live Yankee 
here ;" then men, women, and children, would 
rush to the door, and stare as though they saw 
some great monster, asking : 

" Whar did you ketch him ? Goin' to hang 
him when you get him to Chattanooga ?" and 
similar expressions without end. 

This was only amusing at first, but its per- 
petual recurrence soon grew terribly wearisome, 
and was not without its effect in making me be- 
lieve they really would hang me. In fact, my 
expectation of escaping was never very bright ; 
yet I considered it my duty to keep up my 
spirits as well as I could, and not despair till it 
really was certain that there remained no 
ground for hope. The afternoon wore slowly 
away as we traveled along, passing some very 
grand and romantic scenery, that in any other 
frame of mind would have been enthusiastically 
enjoyed ; but now my thoughts were otherwise 
engaged. 

It was not the thought of death I so much 



120 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

dreaded, as tlie manner of death. Death amid 
the smoke, and excitement, and glory of battle, 
was not half so terrible as in the awful calm- 
ness and chill horror of the scaftbld! And 
sadder yet, to think of my friends, who would 
count the weary months that had gone by, and 
wish and long for my return, till hope became 
torturing suspense, and suspense deepened into 
despair. These thoughts were almost too much 
for stoicism ; yet there was no alternative but 
to patiently endure. 

The sun went down, and night came on — 
deep, calm, and clear. One by one the stars 
twinkled into light. I gazed upon their beauty 
with new feelings, as I wondered whether the 
short, revolving course of a few more suns 
might not bring me a dweller above the stars ! 
And as I thought of the blessed rest for the 
weary beyond the shores of time, my thoughts 
took a new direction. I was not then a pro- 
fessor of Christianity, but had often and be- 
lievingly thought of the great interests of the 
future, and had resolved to make them my par- 
ticular study ; but had never hitherto addressed 
myself in earnest to the task, and latterly, the 
confusion and bustle of a camp-life had almost 
driven the subject out of my mind. But now, 
whether it came from the clusterinoc stars 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 121 

above, or from the quiet and stillness so con- 
genial to exhausted nature, after the weariness 
and excitement of the last few days, or from a 
still deeper source, I know not. I only know 
that the memory of that night, when I was 
thus being carried chained to an unknown fate, 
is one of the sweetest of my life. My babbling 
guards had subsided into silence, and, as we 
wended along through the gathering darkness, 
high and noble thoughts of the destiny of man 
filled my breast, and death seemed only the 
shining gate to eternal and blissful life. I was 
nerved for any fate. 

We arrived at Chattanooga while a feeble 
glow of the soft spring twilight still lingered 
on the earth. We immediately drove to the 
headquarters of General Leadbetter, then com- 
manding that place, and while our guards as- 
cended to inform him of our arrival, I was left 
in the carriage. As soon as we entered the 
town, the word was given : 

" We've got a live Yankee ; one that took the 
train the other day." 

I was not the first one of the party captured, 
but was the first brought to Chattanooga. The 
curiosity to see one of the men who had fright- 
ened women and children into the woods, was, 
11 



122 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

of course, most extreme, and an immense 
crowd soon gathered around. They behaved 
just as Southern mobs usually do — ^jeering and 
hooting — calling me by every epithet of re- 
proach the language afforded, and wanting to 
know why I came down there to burn their 
property, and murder them and their children. 
To these multitudinous questions and as- 
sertions I made no answer. I was greatly 
amused (afterward 1) by their criticisms on my 
appearance. One would say that '' it was a 
pity that so young and clever-looking a man 
should be caught in such a scrape." Another, 
of more penetrating cast, could tell that " he 
was a rogue by his appearance — probably came 
out of prison in his own country." Another 
was surprised that I could hold up my head 
and look around on honest men — arguing that 
such brazen effrontery was a proof of enormous 
depravity of heart. I did not give my opinion 
on the subject. Indeed, it was not asked. 

There was one man I noticed in particular. 
He was tall and venerable-looking ; had gray 
hair, gray beard, a magnificent forehead, and 
an altogether commandmg and intellectual ex- 
pression of countenance. He was treated with 
great deference, and appeared to me most like 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 123 

a doctor of divinity. As he parted his way 
through the crowd toward me, I thought : 

'' Surely I will receive some sympathy from 
that noble-looking man." 

His first question was calculated to confirm 
my impression. Said he : 

" How old are you ?" 

I answered, '' Twenty-two, sir." 

Gradually his lip wreathed itself into a curl 
of unutterable scorn, as he slowly continued : 

'' Poor young fool ! and I suppose you was a 
school-teacher, or something of that kind in 
your own land ! and you thought you would 
come down here and rob us, and burn our 
houses, and murder us, did you ? Now let me 
give you a little advice : if you ever get home 
again, (but you never will,) do try, for God's 
sake, and have a little better sense, and stay 
there !" 

Then he turned contemptuously on his heel, 
and strode away, while the rabble around re- 
warded him with a cheer. I never could find 
out who he was. After that I looked no more 
for sympathy in that crowd. 

My conductors now returned, and escorted me 
into the presence of General Leadbetter. They 
said he was a Northern man: but if so, it is 
very little credit to my section, f jr he was one 



124: DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

of the most contemptible individuals I ever 
knew. He was a perfect sot, and had just two 
states of body, as a Confederate captain after- 
wards explained to us — these were, dead drunk, 
and gentlemanly drunk. He oscillated con- 
stantly between these two. He was a coward 
as well, and though only a brigadier-general, 
managed to stay as far away from the field 
when the fight was going on, as one of our own 
most conspicuous major-generals did. He had 
been promoted to his present position for his 
gallantry in hanging some defenceless East Ten- 
nessee citizens, which he did without a trial. 

All these facts I learned afterward, except 
one, which was apparent when I entered the 
room. He was '' gentlemanly drunk." He 
commenced questioning me, and I told him 
partly the truth, and partly not — going on the 
principle that truth is a pearl, and pearls are 
not to be thrown before swine. I told him that 
I was a United States soldier, giving him my 
company and regiment ; but saying that I was 
detailed without my consent, that I was igno- 
rant of where I was going, and what I was to 
perform, which I only learned as fast as I was 
to execute it. He wanted to know our inten- 
tion in thus seizing the engine, but I plead 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 125 

icrnorance. He next inquired who was our en- 
gineer, but I refused to tell. He then said : 

" Sir, I want you to tell me just how many 
men you had on that train, and to describe them 
so I may know when I get them." 

I answered, " General, I have freely told you 
whatever concerns only myself, because I 
thought it better that you should know that 
I am a soldier under the protection of the 
United States, but 1 have not yet become base 
enough to describe my comrades !" 

" !" sneered he, " I don't know that I ought 
to have asked you that." 

'^I think not, sir," I replied. 

" Well," said he, '' I know all about it. Your 
leader's name is Andrews. What kind of a man 
is he?" 

I was perfectly astonished that he should 
have Andrews' name, and know him to be our 
leader ; but I never imagined what I afterward 
found to be the true cause— that Andrews had 
been captured, and had given his name, with 
the fact that he was the leader of the expe- 
dition. I had every confidence that he would 
getaway, and try some measures for our relief; 
so I answered boldly : 

" I can tell you only one thing about him, 
11* 



126 DAKING AND SUFFEKING ; OR 

and that is, he is a man whom jou will never 
catch." 

I thought I noticed a peculiar smile on the 
General's face as I said this, but he only replied : 

" That will do for you ;" and turning to a 
captain who stood by, he continued, " take him 
to the hole ; you know where that is." 

With a nod in reply, the captain took me out 
of the room. As I passed through the door, I 
saw an explanation of the General's smile. 
There stood Andrews, ironed, waiting an au- 
dience, and Marion Koss and John Williams 
with him. I did not choose to recognize them ; 
for such recognition might have compromised 
them, as I knew not what course they would 
pursue. 



THE GREAT RAILBOAD ADVENTURE. 127 



CHAPTER YIII. 

Negro Prison — Swims, the Jailor — Horrible Dungeon — 
Black Hole of Calcutta — Suffocation — Union Prisoners 
— Slave Catching — Our Party Reuiiited — Breakfast Low- 
ered by Rope — Hunger — Counseling — Fiendish Barba- 
rity — Chained in the Dungeon — Andrews tried as a Spy 
and Traitor — Sweet, but Stolen News — Removed from 
Dungeon — Pure Air and Sunlight — Attacked by a Mob 
— "A Friend" — Madison — Daring Adventure and Nar- 
row Escape. 

The captain now called a guard of eight 
men, and conducted me through the streets for 
some time ; at last we came to a little brick 
building, surrounded by a high board fence. 
Those who have ever been in Chattanooga, and 
visited the negro prison, will recognize my de- 
scription. A portion of the building was 
occupied by the jailor, but the prison part con- 
sisted of two rooms, one under the other, and 
also partly underground. This under room 
had no entrance from the outside, but was ac- 
cessible only through a trap-door from the room 
directly overhead. 

Chattanooga is not a county-seat, and, there- 
fore, this prison was built only for the accom- 
modation of negroes by their humane owners. 



128 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

The jailor, Swims, was a character, and merits 
a particular description. He was an old man — 
perhaps sixty. His hair, which was very 
abundant, was white as snow, and his face had 
a dry and withered expression. His voice was 
always keyed on a whining tone, except when 
some great cause, such as the demand of prison- 
ers for an extra bucket of water, excited him, 
and then it rose to a hoarse scream. Avarice 
was his predominant, almost his only, charac- 
teristic. He seemed to think his accommoda- 
tions were vastly too good for negroes and 
Yankees, and that when they were admitted 
within his precincts, they should be thankful, 
and give as little trouble as possible. With 
such notions, it was not wonderful that he man- 
aged to make the lot of the prisoner an uncom- 
fortable one. In addition to this, he was very 
fond of a dram, and frequently became suffi- 
ciently intoxicated to reveal many important 
matters that we would not otherwise have 
learned. 

He bustled to the gate, growling all the time 
about being troubled so much, unlocked it, and 
admitting us, led us up the outside stairway, 
and then into the upper room. I now saw why 
the General called the place a " hole," and truly 
I thought the name was appropriate. It was 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 129 

only thirteen feet square, destitute of every 
convenience, without chairs, beds, or any- 
thing of the kind. There were in it five or six 
old, miserable-looking men, who had not been 
washed for months. The place looked hard to 
me, and I shuddered at the idea of taking up 
my abode in such a den. But I soon found 
that I was not to enjoy that luxury. 

Said the jailor to the captain, " Where shall 
I put him ?" 

'' Below, of course," was the reply. 

The jailor then advanced to the middle of 
the floor, and taking a large key from his 
pocket, knelt down and unlocked two rusty 
locks ; then, with a great effort, raised a pon- 
derous trap-door just at my feet. The hot air 
and the stifling stench smote m^e back, but the 
bayonets of the guards were just behind, and I 
was compelled to move forward again. A long 
ladder was next thrust down through the trap- 
door, and the inmates warned to stand from 
under. A mingled volley of cries, oaths, and 
questions ascended, and the ladder was secured. 
The captain then ordered me to descend into 
what seemed more like Pandemonium than any 
place on earth. Down I went into the Cim- 
merian gloom — clambering step by step to a 
depth of full v thirteen feet; for the place, as I 



180 



afterwards learned, when I had more leisure for 
observation, was a cube, just thirteen feet each 
way. I stepped off the ladder, treading on 
human beings I could not discern, and crowd- 
ing in as best I might. 

The heat was so great that the perspiration 
broke from me in streams. The foeted air 
made me for a time deadly sick, and I won- 
dered whether it could be possible they would 
leave human beings in this horrible place to 
perish. The thought of the black hole at Cal- 
cutta, where so many Englishmen died, rushed 
over me. True, this was done by the cruel and 
savage East Indians, while we were in the hands 
of "our Southern brethern," the ^'chivalry;" 
but I could not perceive that this difference of 
captors made any difference of treatment. 

My breath came thick and heavy, and I 
thought of suffocation. The ladder was drawn 
up, and with a dull and heavy sound that 
seemed crushing down on my heart, the trap- 
door fell. I wedged and jammed my way 
through the living throng to the window. The 
one I reached was just under the wooden stairs, 
and, of course, gave no light. The other was 
below the surface of the ground. They were 
at opposite sides of the room, and were only 
about a foot square, being filled with a triple 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 131 

row of thick set iron bars, that almost excluded 
every current of air. I pressed my face close 
to the bars, and breathed the purest air I could 
get, until I became partly reconciled to the op- 
pression, and then turned to ascertain the con- 
dition of my companions. It was wretched 
beyond description. They were ragged, dirty, 
and crawling with vermin. Most of them were 
nearly naked ; but this was no inconvenience 
there, for it was so warm that those who had 
clothes were obliged to take them oft', and 
nearly all were in a state of nudity. I soon 
found it necessary myself to disrobe, and even 
then the perspiration poured oft* me most pro- 
fusely. It was an atmosphere of death. 

Yet among the prisoners were old men, just 
trembling on the verge of the grave, who were 
arrested merely because they had ventured to 
express a preference for the old, well-tried Gov- 
ernment, over the new, slave-built Confederacy. 
The cruelty practiced on the Tennessee Union 
men will never half be told. It forms the dark- 
est page in the history of the war. In every 
prison of which I was an inmate in Georgia and 
Virginia, as well as in Tennessee, I found these 
miserable but patriotic men thus heartlessly im- 
mured. But I will speak more of them here- 



132 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

after ; at tliat time tlie thought of my own dan- 
ger banished every other consideration. 

There were fourteen white men in the room 
beside myself, and one negro. I wonder what 
those tender soldiers, who consider it deroga- 
tory to their dignity to fight in the same army 
that blacks do, would think if they were con- 
fined with them so closely that there was no 
possibility of getting away. But we endured 
too many real evils to fret at imaginary ones ; 
and besides, Aleck was so kind and accommo- 
dating, so anxious to do everything in his 
power for us, that he soon became a general 
favorite; and when he was taken out to be 
whipped, as he was several times, to ascertain 
whether he was telling a true story or not, we 
could not help feeling the sincerest sympathy 
for him. 

The Southern method of catching stray 
negroes is about this : When one is found travel- 
ing without a pass, he is arrested, taken to the 
jail, and severely flogged. This usually brings 
some kind of a confession from him, and he is 
advertised in accordance with that confession. 
If no answer is received in a limited time, it 
is taken for granted that he lied, and he is 
whipped again, in order to bring a new confes- 
sion. Thus they continue alternately whipping 



THE GREAT RAILTIOAD ADVENTURE. 133 

and advertising, till the close of the year. If a 
master is found before this, he can pay the costs 
and take his property ; if not, the negro is sold to 
pay the jail and whipping fees. No trial id ever 
allowed at which the negro might prove himself 
free. When once arrested his doom is sealed, 
and in this way many free negroes are enslaved, 

Aleck had been in this prison seven months, 
and was to remain five more, with no other 
prospect than that of being sold into perpetual 
bondage ! 

Every society has its aristocrats, and here I 
soon found that the eminence was given to those 
who were charged with the most daring deeds. 
The spy — there was but one so accused, and he 
was blind,* — was considered much above the 
ordinary Union men. I was charged with the 
greatest adventure of any confined there, and, 
of course, was treated with becoming deference. 

I was not long the only one of the engine- 
thieves, (by which name we were known during 
our stay in the Confederacy,) who was confined 
in this dungeon. Soon the trap-door again 
opened, causing a stream of comparatively cool 
air from the room above to rush down. It was 
an inconceivable relief — a luxury that none 

^ The rebels thought he was counterfeiting blindness, 
but I believe it was real. 

12 



134 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

could appreciate who had not, as we had, been 
deprived of that greatest blessing God has 
given to man — pure air. 

We wondered who was coming next, as the 
feeble glimmering of a candle above revealed 
several forms descending. The Tennesseeans 
cried out : 

"Don't put any more down here! "We're 
full ! " We'll die if more are put down !" 
which did not seem improbable. 

But these remonstrances produced no effect. 
Down they came, and I, stationing myself at 
the foot of the ladder, spoke something indiffe- 
rently to them, and heard my name called in 
return. 

It was Andrews, Wollam, and Eoss, who 
gave me their hands in silent condolence of our 
common misery. Still others were brought, I 
do not now remember whether that evening, or 
in the morning. Again the door was closed, 
and the free air, which had seemed to flow to us 
in sympathy, was once more shut out. 

We tried to arrange ourselves to secure the 
repose we so much needed, but the room was 
too small. Think of this, ye who sleep on your 
downy beds at home. Here were your bro- 
thers of Ohio, not only compelled to sleep on 
the bare floor, but not even enough of that, in 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 135 

this vilest of dens, on which to lie down at all ! 
and yet some of you sympathize with those who 
were the authors of this cruelty, and think it so 
hard that their property should be confiscated 
for such trifles as these, and, worst of all, that 
their negroes should be taken from them ! 
What shall we think of you ? 

We did the best we could. Some found room 
to lie down. Others sat against the wall, and 
still others leaned on the breasts of those who 
were thus supported. It is no wonder if, while 
in such a situation we should be afflicted with 
the nightmare, and have innumerable bad 
dreams. If any one wanted to move his posi- 
tion, or go for a drink, (and the stifling heat 
rendered us all very thirsty,) he was sure to 
tread on his neighbors, and tempers being natu- 
rally very short here, some warm altercations 
took place, which contributed still more to dis- 
turb our slumbers. 

The next morning we slept late. Indeed, as 
long as we remained in this prison we were 
inclined to sleep much. The great quantity of 
carbonic acid gas our breathing produced, 
seemed to act as an opiate, and thus served, in 
some measure, to deaden the sense of pain. We 
were aroused the next morning — early, as we 
supposed — by the opening of the door above, 



136 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

and the delicious shower of cool air that fell 
on us. As we looked up, we saw the white 
head of our old jailor bending over, and saying, 
in drawling tones, "Boys, here's your break- 
fast," and down he lowered a bucket, by a rope, 
containing a very small piece of bread, and the 
same of meat, for each of us. This was seized 
and devoured almost instantly. I had received 
nothing to eat since breakfast the day before, 
and the little morsel I got only served to 
whet my appetite ; but there was no more I 
AYe asked what time it was, and were told nine 
o'clock. We were also informed that we would 
get our meals only twice a day. This was 
rather discouraging information for persons as 
hungry as ourselves, but we had no remedy. 

During the day a few more of our party 
came in, and among them was G. D. Wilson. 
I found that they had all done as I had in 
acknowledging themselves United States sol- 
diers, influenced by the same reasons, and most 
of them sooner than myself. We consulted 
about the matter, and concluded that the only 
hope we had, was in adhering to the same 
story, and trying to make them believe that we 
were actually detailed without our consent, and 
without a knowledge of what we had to do. 
This was true for part, but not for all, or even 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 137 

for the most of us. We agreed to conceal the 
name of the engineer at all hazards — the fact 
of a previous expedition being sent down into 
Georgia, and that Campbell was not a soldier — 
also our previous acquaintance with Andrews, 
thus leaving him free to make his own defense. 
With the exception of these reserved facts, 
w^hich were not even to be whispered among 
ourselves, we were to talk freely ; to answer all 
questions and convey the impression that we 
had nothing to conceal. We carried out this 
idea, and, as more of our men came in, they 
agreed to it, and gave, wnthout reserve, their 
true names, companies, and regiments. This 
course gained us sympathy from those whose 
bosoms were not steeled against every kindly 
feeling ; and to this, more than anything else, I 
attribute the fact of some of the party being 
alive to-day. 

We afterward communicated our plan to 
Andrews, who cordially approved it — saying 
that if we adhered to it there would be some 
chance for our lives. We did adhere to it, and 
no amount of persuasion, threatening, or pro- 
mises, could induce any of the party to betray 
one of our reserved secrets. The rebels were 
particularly anxious to discover who was the 
engineer, and would first ask the question in 
12* 



138 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

the most careless manner ; then afterward would 
sternly demand to know. They even employed 
a man, who was a freemason, to visit the party, 
and try to gain the confidence of one of our 
number, who belonged to that order, and sub- 
sequently urge him to tell the desired name, 
under the sanction of the masonic oath I But 
all in vain. 

As others of our party joined us, in bands of 
two or three, they told the story of their cap- 
ture. This was, in some cases, most thrilling, 
and still further illustrates the fiendish barbar- 
ities of the rebels. 

Two of them, Parrott and Eobinson, who 
were captured the same day they left the train, 
were taken to Ringgold. Here they endeav- 
ored to compel Parrott, who was the youngest 
looking of the party, to betray his companions, 
and particularly the engineer ; but he refused to 
do it; then these villains in Confederate uni- 
form, stripped him naked, and stretched him 
down on a rock, four men holding him by each 
hand and foot, while two others stood by with 
loaded revolvers, threatening him with instant 
death if he offered the least resistance ; then a 
rebel lieutenant commenced whipping him with 
a raw hide ; three different times he ceased and 
raised Parrott up, asking him if he was ready 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 139 

to confess ; but the heroic boy refused, and at 
last the whipping was discontinued, after more 
than a hundred lashes had been inflicted. His 
back remained sore a long time, and he suffered 
very much from being obliged to lie on the 
hard floor. They did not apply anything to 
his wounds to heal them, and the scars still 
remain. 

All the party came in chained, but of course 
expected, . when they were put down into the 
dungeon — and such a dungeon! — that they 
would at least have the use of their hands. But 
this was too great an indulgence to be allowed. 
We were handcuffed, and then chained to- 
gether by the neck in twos and threes. My 
partner was William Reddick, to whom I was 
strongly attached ioT some time ! 

Thus chained together, packed into a little 
cramped dungeon, deprived even of light, and 
almost of air, crawled over by all kinds of 
vermin, for there were innumerable rats, mice, 
and bugs, as well as a smaller and still more 
pestiferous insect, we presented a picture of 
nearly perfect misery. 

In this state we remained almost three weeks. 
During this time Andrews had received a trial. 
The evidence was strong against him. A Mr. 
Whiteman, whom Andrews himself had di- 



140 

rected to be summoned, and who was a former 
business partner of his, testified that Andrews 
had been repeatedly in the South, that he had 
professed allegiance to the Southern Confed- 
eracy, and in all things represented himself to 
be a citizen of the same. In fact he had passes 
in his possession when he was captured that 
'^ould hardly have been obtained without his 
taking the oath of allegiance. This did much 
to sustain the charge of treason against him, as 
he admitted being the leader of the expedition. 
The other indictment, which was that of being 
a spy, was not supported by any evidence, so 
far as I could learn ; but this was of no import- 
ance, as the punishment of the first charge was 
death. However, the sentence was not then 
given, and Andrews' lawyers gave him some 
reason to hope that there was an informality in 
the proceedings which would render the whole 
trial void. 

All this time we were most intensely anxious 
to know how military affairs were progressing 
in the world without. I had appropriated from 
an officer in charge of us, a paper containing 
the Confederate account of our chase, which has 
been given before, and also an admission that 
the battle of Shiloh was not so much of a victory 
as they had at first supposed. We managed, 



THE GEEAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 141 

likewise, to get one or two other papers which 
gave the welcome news that onr armies were 
still pressing onward, and earnestly did we wish 
and hope that Chattanooga would be reached in 
time to effect our deliverance. 

But the best item of news we received, was 
from our old jailor, who, on one occasion, be- 
came too drunk to remember the orders he had 
received against telling us anything, and let out 
the very interesting fact that General Mitchel 
had advanced to Bridgeport, only twenty -eight 
miles below us, on the Tennessee river, and 
there had sorely defeated the rebels, capturing 
some of the very same men who had been 
guarding us a few days before. 

This was very cheering, and we began to 
hope that we, too, would soon be captured. 
The officer of the guard was obviously uneasy. 
All the time we were in the dungeon, we had 
been guarded by twenty-six men, with a cap- 
tain over them. This was certainly enough to 
keep twenty-two, confined and chained as we 
were, in our place, but we thought it would be 
a capital joke should they be captured Avith us ! 

But it was not their intention to let us fall 
into Mitchel's hands. An order was sent to the 
captain in charge to prepare us for moving. He 
did so ; and soon after, we were in the cars, car- 



142 DAEING AND SUFFERING ; OR 

ried down the same road we came up so rapidly 
three weeks before. 

How beautiful all nature appeared ! It was 
May, and the time we had spent Avithout one 
glance at the expansive sky or green earth, 
had not been lost in the material world. The 
landscape had been robed id a richer verdure, 
the budding trees had swelled into leafy 
screens, the sky was of a softer blue, the birds 
warbled with new melody, and everything 
seemed to wear its holiday dress. 

O, the joy ! the gladness ! of being once more 
under the canopy of heaven, and of looking up 
to its unfathomable depths, with no envious bars 
to obstruct our view.- Many a time have I 
passed the month of May, amidst the most ro- 
mantic scenery, but never yet did I so deeply 
feel, that this is indeed a pleasant world, full of 
beauty and goodness, as on that balmy eveaing, 
when the rays of the setting sun, glowing from 
the west, streamed over the grass and wheat- 
fields on their path, and poured in mellowed, 
yellow radiance, through our car- window. But 
even then the glories of earth and sky could not 
make me forget that I was still chained to my 
companion, and surrounded by guards with 
gleaming bayonets. 

The wild excitement caused by our raid had 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 143 

not subsided in the least, and as it became 
known that we were passing along the road, a 
mob greeted us at every station. It is not 
necessary to again describe these mobs, for all 
are alike, and one description answers for many. 
They were, as usual, rude, loquacious, and 
insulting. 

When we arrived in Atlanta, which was in 
the morning, there was no jail-room for us ; but 
before going further, we were obliged to wait 
for the evening train. When it became known 
in the city that we were there, a mob instantly 
collected, and prepared to hang us. They were 
prevented by our guard, probably on the prin- 
ciple that a mouse is protected by a kitten — 
that it may have the pleasure of first playing 
with it, and afterwards killing it itself. During 
the progress of the strife between those who 
wanted to hang us and those who wanted the 
law to take its course, several persons were se- 
verely injured. But while the disturbance was 
in progress, one man succeeded in reaching the 
car window unnoticed, and handed us a paper, 
using only the single but magical word — '^ a 
friend" — and then was lost in the throng. We 
read the paper by snatches as the attention of 
the guard was directed to other objects, and 
found it to contain glorious news — nothing less 



144 DARING AND SUFFERING ; OR 

than the capture of New Orleans hy our jieet! 
Need I say that, for the time, all thought of 
private misfortune was lost in the exhilaration 
of national triumph ? 

The cause of secession then looked gloomy. 
I took particular pains to talk with the officer 
in charge of us, and other intelligent rebels, 
about their prospects, and found them dis- 
couraged. Our captain would not let us have 
any newspapers, or knowingly give us any in- 
formation ; yet he thought it no harm to talk 
with us on the great subject of the war, after 
we had learned the facts from other sources. 
Frequently, by pretending to know, we could 
get from him a full idea of things concerning 
which we were ignorant before. Of this cha- 
racter was McClellan's advance on Richmond. 
The captain admitted that he was moving with 
an overwhelming force, and that they had then 
but a comparatively small army to resist him. 
Indeed, everything looked bright for the Union 
cause, and the only uneasiness that disturbed 
us was the apprehension that we might not live 
to witness that bappy triumph which now 
seemed so near. 

In the evening we glided on again, and at 
length arrived at Madison. This is a flourish- 
ing village, and looked well as we entered it. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 145 

There were then some six hundred of our pris- 
oners confined there, and we indulged the hope 
that we might be put with them. But we soon 
learned that the brand of criminality .for our 
daring adventure still rested on us ; for we were 
marched past the dilapidated cotton factory 
where our friends were confined, to the old 
county jail, which was then entirely unoccupied. 
It was a gloomy stone building, and had two 
rooms, but both had doors, and were above 
ground. Of the upper story I can not speak, 
as our party was divided, and I was one that 
was assigned to the lower apartment. The 
room was very dark, and its heavy stone walls 
rendered it quite damp. It would have seemed 
like a wretched place, had it not been for our 
previous experience in Chattanooga. Besides, 
we were now further from the influence of 
General Leadbetter, and only under the control 
of our captain, who showed us some kindness, 
though we were still in irons. 

The citizens of the place were freely admit- 
ted to see us, and ranged themselves — always in 
the presence of the guard — along one side of 
the cell, and talked about all the exciting topics 
of the day. They pretended to admire us very 
much, and contrasted our daring expedition 
with what they were pleased to call the coward- 
13 



146 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

ice of the Yankees generally, and asked if there 
were any more like us in the army. Wilson, 
of Cincinnati; assured them that we were the 
poorest men in Mitchel's Division, and only 
sent away because he had no use lor us. This 
rather astonished them ; but from the way in 
which Mitchel, with his small and divided force, 
was controlling Northern Alabama, and much 
of Eastern Tennessee, as well as defeating them 
at all points, they were rather inclined to 
believe it. 

But among these visitors was one who came 
not for mere curiosity. He was dressed in 
rebel uniform, but was instantly recognized by 
Andrews as a spy in the service of the United 
States. They had no opportunity for private 
communication, but our situation was revealed 
in such a way as not to excite suspicion. His 
character was made known to us by Andrews, 
afte^ his departure ; and while we were won- 
dering at his audacity, and rather inclined to 
disbelieve the story, the captain of the guard, 
who had come to bring supper, told us that a 
most remarkable occurrence had taken place 
that afternoon. 

He said that the Provost-Marshal had learned, 
from some source, that a spy of Lincoln's had 
been amonp: our visitors, and had at once sent 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 147 

a guard to arrest him. The guard found him 
at the depot, just as the cars were coming in. 
The stranger was very indignant at his arrest, 
and told them scornfully that he had papers in 
his pocket that would prove his character any- 
where. They were somewhat abashed at this, 
and released their hold on him, but asked him 
to produce the papers. He put his hand in his 
pocket, as though searching for them, and fum- 
bled about, until he noticed that the train, 
which was starting, had attained a good rate of 
speed, and then, just as the last car swung by, 
he dashed from them, and jumped aboard! 
There was no telegraph station at Madison, and 
he escaped. 

At this the Confederates were very much en- 
raged, and would permit no more visiting ; but 
we felt ample consolation in the certainty that 
our condition would be at once reported to our 
of&cers, and every effort made for our release. 



148 BAKING AND SUFFERING; OR 



CHAPTEK IX. 

Return to Chattanooga— Caution of Rebels — Unchain Our- 
selves—Mock Trials— The Judge— Singing— One Kind- 
ness — Projected Escape — Loitering Comrades — A Gleam 
of Hope — Sad Parting — Knoxville — Prison Inmates — 
Brownlow — Awful Cruelty — Andrews Condemned to 
Death — Escapes with WoUam — Fearful Perils— Swim- 
ming the River — Hiding on an Island — Found by Chil- 
dren — Yields to His Fate — Horrible Death— Wollam's 
Stratagem— On the River — Passes a Gun Boat — Final 
Capture. 

We remained only three days in Madison, 
when the rebel general, becoming convinced 
that Mitchel was not then going to advance on 
Chattanooga, ordered us back to that place. 
Again we were compelled to run the gauntlet 
of insulting and jeering mobs that had annoyed 
our course down the road. We traveled in rude 
box-cars, that were wet and filthy, and the jour- 
ney was rendered still more uncomfortable by 
the idea of going back to our old quarters in 
the wretched prison at Chattanooga. 

However, by the time we arrived there, our 
captain, who had never been a very warm se- 
cessionist, and, therefore, had no very hard 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 149 

feelings towards us, had become quite friendly. 
He DOW proved this by interceding in our behalf, 
and procuring us permission to remain in the 
upper room. This was the same size as the 
lower one, but it had three windows instead of 
two, and these were larger, and obscured by 
only one row of bars. But the poor Tennessee 
Union men had to go below. 

It was amusing to see the exaggerated caution 
with which they guarded us. Even when we 
were below, where scarcely any man could have 
got out without assistance, they never raised the 
trap door unprotected by a strong guard. Now, 
when we were in the upper room, their vigi- 
lance was still further increased. They would 
bring a guard into the jailor's room, through 
which ours was entered, and there array them 
with leveled bayonets, into two lines across the 
door. At the same time, the stairway was 
guarded, and another guard always surrounded 
the jail outside of the wall. And even the old 
jailor would fret, and predict that evil would 
result from showing the Yankees so much in- 
dulgence. 

All this time we were chained, and as the 
authorities were thus slow in relieving us of 
what we believed to be an unnecessary incum- 
brance, we set our wits to work to free cur- 
ia* 



150 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

selves. One of the party had managed to secrete 
a small knife while they were searching him, and 
with this made rude keys from the bones of the 
meat given us, and in a short time opened every 
lock. We could not, of course, appear in pub- 
lic in our new liberty, or more effectual means 
of fastening would probably have been devised. 
To avoid detection, we kept some one always on 
the watch. Then, when any person was heard 
approaching our room, a signal was given, and 
a quick rattling of chains accompanied the ad- 
justment and re-locking of our bands. When 
the door opened, we would be chained all right, 
and as soon as it closed we would be free again. 
We continued this deception during our stay in 
this prison, and were never detected. 

While here, we relieved the tedious time that 
hung heavily on our hands by mock trials. 
We would charge one of the company with 
some offence, generally a trifling breach of our 
prison rules, and proceed to trial. Campbell, 
whose immense personal strength better enabled 
him to inflict the punishment that would be 
awarded, usually officiated as judge, until at 
last he got the name of Judge firmly fixed on 
him. These trials produced much sport. We 
had ample time for it, and the opposing coun- 
sel would make very long and learned speechca. 



THE GPwEAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 151 

So interesting were these arguments, and so 
eloquent our appeals, that no one of the audi- 
tors was ever known to leave the house while 
they were in progress! The witnesses, too, 
were very slippery, and it was sometimes quite 
difficult to reconcile their testimony. There 
were always some nullificrs present who would 
attempt to resist the enforcement of the laws, 
and the infliction of the penalties adjudged ; but 
in these cases the personal weight of the judge 
decided the matter. This resistance would give 
rise to new arrests and trials, and thus the work 
became interminable. 

Another and more refined enjoyment was 
singing. There were several good singers in 
the party, and, by practicing together, they 
soon acquired great proficiency. Most of the 
songs were of a tender and melancholy cast ; 
such as the " Carrier Dove," " Do They Miss 
Me at Home," "Nettie More," '' Twenty Years 
Ago," &c. Our time for singing was when 
twilight began to fall. Then in the gathering 
darkness the voice of song would ring out, as 
glad and free as if it was not strained through 
prison bars. The guards liked very much to 
hear us sing, and frequently citizens of the town 
would gather round outside to listen to the 
caged Yankees. 



152 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

There is one man in the Confederacy whom 
I must praise. Amid the worthless and boastful 
aristocrats who have monopolized for them- 
selves the name of " chivalry," I found oyie gen- 
tleman. This was Colonel Claiborne, at that 
time Provost-Marshal of Chattanooga. When 
he first visited us, he said boldly that it was 
a shame to keep men in such a condition, and 
tried in vain to get permission from General 
Lead better, to remove our irons ; he then 
ordered us to be brought into the yard to 
breathe the fresh air every afternoon. This 
was an inexpressible relief, for it was now in- 
tensely hot in oair room ; and simply to be in 
the open air a short time was a luxury above 
all price. This he did on his own responsibil- 
ity, and some weeks afterward was dismissed 
from his post on account of his humanity to us! 

While here, the idea of escape frequently pre- 
sented itself. It is true that our guards out- 
numbered us, and always used the cautions I 
have described above ; but the very fear this 
argued would have been our best help. We 
often discussed the subject among ourselves. 

All were anxious to go but Eoss and Wilson, 
who thought the proposition premature, as they, 
relying on what the officers in charge of us 
said, believed that there was some hope of our 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 153 

exchange. But others of us were impatient to 
make one bold effort for our own deliverance. 
Two plans were proposed The first, which I 
suggested, was to have all our irons off when 
the guards came up to feed us, and then, as the 
door opened, to make a simultaneous rush on 
the leveled bayonets outside, wrest the arms 
from their owners and pour down stairs on the 
guard below. As soon as we had secured the 
arms of the remainder, we could leave the pri- 
son-yard in a solid body, and pass on double- 
quick to the ferry-boat, which lay on our side 
of the river, not far distant. Once over the 
river, and thus armed, we would have been com- 
paratively safe. 

The other plan, which we finally agreed to 
adopt, was proposed by Andrews. It was, that 
some one should secrete himself under the 
bed in the jailor's room, when we were coming 
up from our breathing in the yard, and remain 
there till all was quiet at night ; then come out 
and noiselessly unlock the door ; after this, we 
could rush down, seize the guard, and proceed, 
as in the first plan. 

There were two of our party who failed to 
reach the place of rendezvous in time to be 
with us on the train. One was from the Twenty- 
first, the other from the Second Ohio Regiment. 



154 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

They were suspected, and to save themselves, 
were compelled to join a rebel battery, which 
they did, representing themselves as brothers 
from Kentucky. In the battle at Bridgeport, in 
which the secessionists were so badly panic- 
stricken, the one from the Twenty-first found 
an opportunity to escape to General Mitchel. 
This caused suspicion to rest on bis supposed 
brother, who was arrested, brought to Chatta- 
nooga, and confined in the dungeon while we 
were there. We recognized him, and talked, 
though very cautiously, about his adventures. 
He asked us not to divulge the fact that he was 
one of us — an unnecessary request. He re- 
mained there for some time, and was finally 
released, and put into the battery again, from 
which, by a wonderful series of adventures, he 
succeeded in making good his escape to our 
lines. 

At this time there was a great talk of ex- 
change. A son of General Mitchel's had been 
captured ; but he also held a considerable num- 
ber of prisoners, and it was believed that an 
exchange would be effected. A lieutenant, whom 
Mitchel had released on parole, for the purpose 
of seeing Kirby Smith, at that time commanding 
the department of East Tennessee, and obtaining 
his consent to an exchange, visited us. His 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 155 

story raised the most sanguine hopes. The 
Confederate officers, however, said that it would 
be first necessary to have a trial, and prove 
that we were really United States soldiers, and 
then we, too, would be embraced in the ex- 
change. Andrews, some time before, wanted to 
send a flag of truce through the lines to get 
from our officers a statement of our true cha- 
racter ; but they refused permission, saying that 
they could believe our own story on the subject 
without going to so much trouble. 

The prospect of an exchange served to defer 
our attempted escape, but at last we resolved to 
wait no longer. The very day we came to this 
conclusion, an order was given to send twelve 
to Knoxville for trial — a mere formal one as 
the commander of the guard and the marshal 
told us — to clearly prove that we were an au- 
thorized military expedition, and not mere citi- 
zen adventurers. George D. Wilson was in the 
yard when the order came. He was permitted 
to be down there, because he was very sick. 
The officer of the guard handed him the order, 
asking him to select twelve to go, as no names 
were mentioned. He did so, selecting all his 
own regiment (Second Ohio) first, and after- 
ward his special friends from the other regi- 
ments, because he thought it would be a favor 



156 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

to them — that they would probably be first ex- 
changed. This unexpected order induced us 
to abandon our cherished scheme of escape, 
which, in all probability, judging from the re- 
sult of a subsequent attempt, under far more 
unfavorable circumstances, would have been 
completely successfuL 

As we twelve, who were to go to Knoxville, 
prepared for our departure, we felt a shade of 
gloom fall over our spirits. Our little band, 
who had for nearly two months been compan- 
ions in dangers and privations, such as few men 
ever experienced, was now to be divided, and 
we knew not where we should unite again ; for 
in spite of their fair words, the fad remained 
that we were in the power of that enemy who 
has deluged our land in blood. 

With Andrews, the parting was peculiarly 
affecting ; we had been accustomed to look up 
to him in all emergencies. He was our leader, 
and was the particular mark for the vengeance 
of the foe. Officers, in bidding us hope, spoke 
no words of comfort to him. He bore this like 
a hero, as he was, and continued to hope agaiust 
hope. But now, after we had sung our songs 
together for the last time, and come to bid him 
farewell, we were moved even to tears. I will 
never forget his last words, as he silently 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 157 

pressed our hands, and with a tear in his blue 
eye, and alow, sweet voice, that thrilled through 
my inmost being, said : " Boys, if I never see 
you here again, try to meet me on the other 
side of Jordan." It was our last earthly 
meeting. 

Colonel Claiborne accompanied us to the cars, 
where we found we were to be escorted by a 
detachment of Morgan's celebrated guerillas. 
Claiborne gave orders for our humane treat- 
ment, saying : " They are men, like other men, 
and gentlemen too, and I want them treated as 
such." When he left, I felt we had parted from 
a friend, rebel as he was. 

Claiborne's parting charge procured us cour- 
tesy from our guard. Indeed, they were a 
much better class of men than the great mass 
of the Southern army. Several of them told us 
that they had enlisted with Morgan only to 
make money, and were getting it fast. All 
were well dressed in citizens' clothes, and had 
the language and manners of gentlemen. They 
had another motive in treating us kindly. A 
large number of their own band were now in 
the hands of the government, and were equally 
liable with ourselves, under every rule of right, 
to be treated as criminals ; for they had not only 
dressed in citizens' clothes, but had even as- 
U 



158 

sumed our •aniform wherever it was their in- 
terest to do so. They were indignant to see ua 
in irons, and said they would not be afraid to 
guard us with our limbs free, but did not, of 
course, dare to remove our fastenings. 

We had been started as usual, without any 
rations, on the calculation that we should fast 
till we reached our destination, which would be 
in about twenty-four hours. But our guerilla 
friends would not permit this. They bought 
pies, and literally feasted us, saying that their 
money was plenty, and when it was gone they 
could easily get more from our men. AYe 
hoped that we might have Morgan's men for 
our escort in all future migrations. 

"We arrived in Knoxville shortly after noon, 
and marched through the hot, dusty streets, 
directly to the old jail. This is now a historical 
edifice. It will forever remain associated with 
the extreme sufferings of the loyal East Tennes- 
seeans, during the progress of the great rebel- 
lion. 

The building itself is a noble one, and resem- 
bles some old baronial hall. It is of a peculiar 
style of architecture — solid, square and massive, 
with lofty projecting towers and sharp angles — 
altogether presenting an imposing appearance. 
It was used as a military prison, and was filled 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 159 

from top to bottom with ragged, dirty-looking 
prisoners. Some were Union men, and others 
were deserters from their own rebel ranks. 
These constituted the lower class of prisoners, 
and were permitted to range over most of the 
building, which was completely encircled out- 
side by a strong guard. 

The higher class, or those who were charged 
with more desperate offences, were shut up in 
cages. There were five of these. Two of them 
were at once cleared for our reception. The 
smaller one was about seven feet by nine, and 
four of us were put into it. The larger, in 
which the remainder of the party were placed, 
was perhaps ten by twelve. The latter was the 
cage in which Parson Brownlow had been con- 
fined, and we felt honored by being in the same 
cell that this noble champion of the Union had 
once occupied. 

While in this cage, we read an article in a 
copy of the Knoxville Register, stating that 
Brownlow was in the North, humbugging the 
Yankees by telling them that he had been kept 
in an iron cage, and fired at by his guards, 
when everybody in that vicinity knew that 
the whole thing was a falsity. Even while 
we read this, we looked at the shot-marks which 
were still visible on the cage, and which the 



160 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

guards and prisoners assured us had been made 
in the way Brownlow stated. This may serve 
as a specimen of the manner in which Southern 
papers are accustomed to deal with facts. 

It was in the latter part of May when we 
arrived in Knoxville, and outside^ the weather 
was intensely warm, but inside, from the enor- 
mous masses of stone and iron around, it was 
quite cool. Indeed the nights, which are al- 
ways cool, even in midsummer, in the warmest 
parts of the South, were here very cold, and as 
we had no beds or blankets, but had to lie on 
the partly iron floor, we suffered greatly. 

Here we formed the acquaintance of a few 
Tennesseeans, who continued with us during the 
remainder of our sojourn in Dixie. One of the 
most remarkable of their number was named 
Pierce. He was some sixty years old, and had 
received a stroke with a gun-barrel, right down 
his forehead, which, even after healing, had 
left a gash more than an inch deep. From this 
he was denominated, " Gun-barrel," '^ Forked 
head/' &c. He was at the same time very reli- 
gious and very profane. His voice would first 
be heard singing hymns, and next cursing the 
Confederacy in no measured terms. He was, 
however, a very clever man, and almost adored 
the name of a Union soldier. 



THE GREAT BAILROAD ADVENTURE. 161 

Here it was that we first became acquainted 
with Captain Fry. He was confined in a cage 
in another room. We could not get to see him, 
but could entrust little notes, written on the 
margin of newspapers, to the more faithful of 
the outside prisoners, and were always sure of a 
reply. 

There was one man in the same room with 
me, but in another cage, in whom I became 
especially interested. He was between seventy 
and eighty years old, and was awaiting sentence 
of death. Before his ^rest he had been a 
Union man, and, of course, a marked object of 
suspicion to his secession neighbors. A band 
of these came one night for the purpose of rob- 
bing him. He CDdeavored to prevent them, 
when they attacked him, drawing revolvers 
and bowie-knives. They fired several shots, 
and pursued him. He dodged around old bar- 
rels and other pieces of furniture in the out- 
house where the assault was made, for some 
time, until finally he managed to seize a pitch- 
fork and plunge it into the foremost of his foes ; 
then breaking away, he escaped for the time. 
The robber whom he wounded afterwards died, 
and the Confederate government arrested the 
old man, and confined him in the cage on a 
charge of murder 1 I neyer h§ard the result of 
14* 



162 DARING AND SUFFERING ; OR 

it, but have no doubt that he has long since 
been hung. 

We obtained quite a number of papers while 
here, and were much pleased to learn of the con- 
tinued progress of our arms, particularly in the 
West. The taking of Fort Pillow, the evacua- 
tion of Memphis and Corinth, with the destruc- 
tion of the rebel flotilla on the Mississippi, all 
came out in one paper; and the editor com- 
plained that he had been restrained from pub- 
lishing this by the government for more than 
two weeks after the intelligence arrived. 

One day we received news that sent the 
blood coursing through our veins in swifter 
flow. It was that Andrews and one other of 
our ipartj had escaped from CJiatianooga! 

Here, to preserve the unity of the story, I 
will give a history of the events that took place 
at Chattanooga subsequent to our departure. 

No unusual event occurred until a week after 
we had left. Then, one day, an officer entered 
the yard, where our boys were enjoying the 
shade of the prison, in the cool of the after- 
noon, and carelessly handed to Andrews his 
death-warrant! It was a terrible shock, but 
was borne bravely. He communicated the 
startling intelligence to our comrades as soon 
as they again assembled in their room. At 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 163 

once they resolved to carry into immediate 
execution the long-projected plan of escape, 
on which now depended their leader's only 
chance of life. 

He was separated from them, and put down 
into the dungeon. But this did not interfere 
with their plans, for with the same knife which 
was so serviceable in making keys, a hole was 
cut above the bolts of the trap-door, allowing 
it to be raised. This done, which was late at 
night, they drew Andrews up by blankets, and 
then went to work cutting another hole through 
the ceiling. While they were performing the 
most noisy part of this operation, they dead- 
ened the sound by singing. The jailor after- 
ward remarked that he might have known 
there was something the matter by their sing- 
ing so mournfully. 

When all their preparations were completed, 
the gray tint of dawn was just beginning to rise 
in the east. There was no time to lose. An- 
drews quickly mounted aloft. A rope was 
formed of some twisted blankets, and the next 
moment he was swinging outside of the wall. 
But in passing through the hole he loosened 
some bricks which fell to the ground, and thus 
gave the alarm. The accident caused him to 



164: DAKING AND SUFFERING; OR 

drop his boots, which he afterward sorely 
needed. 

The guard was instantly aroused, but An- 
drews dropped to the ground, darted to the 
fence, and was over before he could be pre- 
vented. John Wollam followed, and even 
while suspended in the air by the blankets, was 
fired upon. Fortunately, the hands of the 
guards were too unsteady to inflict any injury, 
and he, too, succeeded in getting out of the yard 
in safety. 

Now the excitement became intense. All 
Chattanooga was roused, and the whole force 
started in pursuit of the flying fugitives. The 
officers hurried to the prison and roundly bera- 
ted our boys because they did not give the 
alarm when their comrades were escaping ! Col- 
onel Claiborne, the Marshal, who had shown us 
some humanity, was summarily dismissed from 
his office for that cause alone ! And the press 
came out in the most violent language, denounc- 
ing the officers in charge, and particularly 
General Leadbetter, for their false philanthropy 
in not having us chained to the floor in such a 
manner as to make escape impossible. 

Our flying comrades had separated as soon 
as they left the prison. It was now daylight, 
and they could not continue their flight without 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 165 

the most imminent danger of discovery. An- 
drews went only a few hundred yards from 
town, and there secreted himself in a tree, in 
plain view of the railroad. He remained all 
day in this uncomfortable position, and saw the 
trains running under his feet, and heard his 
pursuers speculating as to what course he could 
have taken. The search was most thorough; 
but, fortunately, his umbrageous shelter was 
secure. 

At night he came down and swam the river, 
but lost most of his clothing in the passage ; he 
then journeyed on nearly naked. In the morn- 
ing, just at the break of day, he crossed a small 
open field on his way to a tree, in which he in- 
tended to take shelter, as he had done the day 
before ; but, unfortunately, he was observed. 
Immediately pursuit was made, but he dashed 
through the woods, and regained the river, 
much lower down than he had crossed the 
evening before. Here he swam a narrow chan- 
nel, and reached a small island, where, for a 
time, he secreted himself among some drift- 
wood at the upper end of the island. 

A party with bloodhounds now came over 
from the mainland in search of him. He was 
soon observed, but broke away from them, and 
ran around the lower end of the island, wading 



166 BAKING AND SUFFERING; OR 

in the shallow water, and in this way threw the 
hounds off his track ; then he plunged into a 
dense thicket, with which the island was cov- 
ered, and again ascended a tree. There, for a 
long time, he remained securely concealed, while 
his pursuers searched the whole island, being 
frequently under the very tree whose high 
foliage effectually screened him from the sight 
of dogs and men. At last they abandoned the 
search, in despair, concluding that he had, by 
some means, left the island, and slowly took 
their departure to the shore to concert new 
plans of search. Two little boys, who came 
along merely for curiosity, were all that still lin- 
gered behind. 

At length, in their childish prattle, one of 
them said he saw a great bunch on a tree. The 
other looked — shifted his position — looked 
again, and exclaimed that it was a man ! This 
alarmed them both, and they called aloud, an- 
nouncing the discovery to their friends on 
shore. The latter instantly returned, and An- 
drews, seeing himself observed, dropped from 
the tree, ran to the lower end of the island, 
took a small log, with a limb for a paddle, and 
shoved into the stream, hoping to reach the op- 
posite shore before he could be overtaken. But 
there was another party with a skiff, lower 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 167 

down the river, who saw him, and rowed out to 
nieet him. Thus enclosed, there was no hope, 
and he surrendered. 

He was in a most wretched condition, having 
eaten nothing since he left the jail. His feet 
were all cut and bleeding from running over 
the sharp stones, and his back and shoulders 
were parched and blistered from exposure, un- 
protected, to the rays of the sun. He said he 
felt so miserable that the thought of the certain 
death, to which he then resigned himself, had 
no further terror for him. 

He was brought back to Chattanooga, where 
a blacksmith welded a pair of heavy clevises on 
his ankles, and connected them with a chain 
only about eighteen inches in length. He had 
then but few more days to live, and his confine- 
ment was most rigid. They prepared a scaf- 
fold for him at Chattanooga, but the indications 
of an advance by Mitchel, induced them to 
change the death scene to Atlanta. All the 
way down to that place he was taunted with his 
approaching doom by the mobs who surrounded 
every station. Our eight comrades accompa- 
nied him to Atlanta, but parted as soon as they 
arrived — they going to prison, and he to the 
place of execution. He was compelled to walk, 
all ironed as he was, and the clanking of his 



168 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

cliains no doubt made sweet music in the ears 
of these human bloodhounds. 

He displayed great firmness when led to the 
place of execution, and mounted the scaffold 
without a tremor. When swung off, the rope 
by which he was suspended, stretched so that 
his feet came to the ground, but, nothing discon- 
certed, these wretches dug the earth away from 
under him and completed the murder ! Thus 
died a good and brave man, at the early age of 
thirty-three, by the hands of rebels, for the crime 
of loving and trying to serve his country ! He 
was engaged to be married to a young lady of 
his own adopted State the same month in which 
he suffered death on the scaffold ! 

It is now time to return to Wollam, whom 
we left outside of the jail-fence, trying to get away 
from Chattanooga. 

He ran down to the river side, and seeing no 
way of crossing himself, hit on the brilliant 
ruse of making them believe that he was across. 
To this end he threw oft' his coat and vest, 
dropping them on the bank of the river, and 
then, after walking a few rods in the water to 
elude the hounds, quietly slipped back, and hid 
in a dense thicket of canes and rushes. He 
heard his pursuers on the bank above him, and 
all around, talking of their various plans. At 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 169 

last they found the clothes, and at once conclu- 
ded that he had taken to the river. Then they 
took the bloodhounds over to the other side, 
and searched for the place of his exit from the 
water. The dogs could not iind that, as might 
be expected, and then, after a due time spent 
in consultation, they concluded that he was 
drowned, and departing much comforted, search- 
ed no more for him. 

After spending a day of most anxious sus- 
pense, the approach of night gave him an 
opportunity of leaving his hiding-place. He 
now cautiously made his way down the river on 
the Chattanooga side. At length he found a 
canoe, in which he rowed at niglit, and when 
morning came, he would sink it, and hide in the 
bushes ; then in the evening raise it, and again 
pursue his way. Twice he passed the extem- 
pore gun-boat Mitchel had made, but feared it 
was some secession craft, and therefore crept 
cautiously by in the shadow of the shore, with- 
out being discovered. At last he thought he 
was beyond the danger of probable capture, and 
v/ent boldly forward in the day time. 

This was a fatal mistake. A band of cavalry, 

who were camped almost within our lines, saw 

him, and procuring a boat, came out to meet 

him. He was unable to escape, and thus the 

15 



170 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

poor fellow was captured on the very brink of 
safety. He at first tried to persuade them that 
he was a Confederate, but, unfortunately, a 
Lieutenant Edwards, who had assisted in cap- 
turing him the first time, happened to be present, 
and at once recognized him. He was soon after 
taken to Atlanta, where the rest of the party 
then were. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 171 



CHAPTER X. 

Sorrow for Andrews— Prepare for Trial — Charges and 
Specifications — Plan of Defence — Incidents of Trial — 
Encouragement — Not Allowed to Hear Pleading — Law- 
yers' Plea — Seven Tried — Mitcliel Dissolves the Court 
— Tied Again — A Saucy Reply — Advantage of Sick- 
ness — Fry Deceived — Revolting Inhumanity — Fry's Cap- 
ture — Starve to Atlanta — Taunts of the Mob — Atlanta 
Prison — A Kind Jailor. 

We, who were at Knoxville, read of tTie re- 
capture of Andrews with the most poignant 
regret, though we knew not yet that he had 
received the sentence of death. Of Wollam we 
heard nothing. 

We were well supplied with papers here, as 
there were plenty of Union people who minis- 
tered to our wants. One day we received a 
paper containing an account of the execution of 
Andrews. It was awful news to us. We had 
been engaged, just before, in all kinds of games 
and story-telling, for we were always merry, and 
never suffered ourselves to indulge in gloomy 
forebodings. But when this news came, all 
noise and merriment were hushed, and we passed 
a whole day in the most heartfelt mourning. 



172 DARING AND SUFFERING I OR 



We all loved our leader, and would willingly 
have engaged in the most desperate enterprise 
to save his life ; but, alas ! he was gone, and there 
was no chance even for that vengeance for 
which our souls thirsted. 

Before we had been long at Knoxville, we 
were notified to prepare for trial. We requested 
that we should all be tried at once, as our cases 
were precisely alike. When this was not 
granted, we next asked that one might be tried, 
imd his sentence be the sentence of the whole 
party. But this too, was refused, with the 
reply that they knew their own business best. 
We were forced to accept this decision, though 
we could not imagine why it was that they 
should thus insist on trying but one at a time. 
The only reason that I can yet conjecture for 
this proceeding is, that it would have looked 
too absurd to arraign twenty-one, or even 
twelve men, all in a body, and from one bri- 
gade, as spies. 

They allowed us the privilege of counsel, 
and we employed two good Union men. Colo- 
nels Baxter and Temple, who volunteered their 
services. We were each to pay them one hun- 
dred and fifty dollars, and as fast as we were 
tried, to give our notes for that amount. 

The charges and specifications of William 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 173 

Campbell were first handed in. He was a 
citizen, but claimed to be a soldier, and we 
endorsed his position. The charge against all 
who were brought to trial was for " lurking in 
and around Confederate camps as spies, for the 
purpose of obtaining information." Not a 
word was said of taking the cars, or of any- 
thing we really did do. 

Our. plan of defence has been partly indi- 
cated before. It was to tell just who we were, 
and what we had done, with the exceptions of 
the pranks we had played on the rebel citizens 
coming down, and to claim that we were United 
States soldiers, detailed on a military expedi- 
tion without our consent, and therefore entitled 
to the protection accorded to regular prisoners 
of war. This was put into words, and read on 
the trial as the acknowledgement of the party 
while pleading ^' not guilty " to the charge. 
The only evidence they had was of the men 
who pursued us on the train, and also of those 
who afterward arrested us ; but of course none 
of these knew anything of our lurking around 
the camps. 

George D. Wilson related a ludicrous incident 

that occurred when he was on trial, and which 

fitly illustrates the desire they had to convict 

us. It was of a young lieutenant belonging to 

15* 



174 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

the court-martial, who requested to be sworn, 
saying that he could tell of at least one place 
we had passed the Confederate guards. On his 
request being complied with, he testified that 
we crossed their picket-line at the ferry, on the 
evening of our first arrival at Chattanooga. 
Immediately the president of the court arose, 
and said that he commanded the guard that 
day, and no guard was -placed at the ferry. The 
whole court was instantly in a roar of laughter, 
and the confusion of our would-be convictor 
may be better imagined than described. 

Our lawyers were delighted with the course 
we took, and said that it had deranged all the 
plans of the prosecution, and that they had not 
a particle of evidence against us ; that if we 
were convicted now, it would be through mere 
prejudice and perjury on the part of the court. 

As the trial of difierent ones proceeded, we 
had still greater encouragement from the court 
itself. Members called on us, and told us to 
keep in good heart, as there was no evidence 
before them to convict any one. This cheered 
us somewhat, but there was still one thing 
which I did not like, and which looked as if 
something was wrong. The court would not 
let our boys be present to hear the pleading of 
counsel on either side, though they urgently 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 175 

requested it. They could neither hear what 
our lawyers had to say for them, nor what the 
Judge Advocate urged against them. This 
seemed still stranger, because Andrews had not 
been debarred this privilege. But they used 
our soldiers with even less show of justice than 
had been accorded to him. 

After three or four had been tried, one of 
our lawyers visited the prison, and read to us 
the plea which he said he had read to the 
court. It was an able paper. I still remember 
its principal features. He contended that our 
being dressed in citizens' clothes was nothing 
more than what the Confederate government 
had expressly authorized, and that it was done 
by all the guerillas in the service of the Con- 
federacy, whenever it was for their interest. 
And he cited the instance of General Morgan 
having dressed his men in Federal uniform, and 
passed them off as belonging to the Eighth 
Pennsylvania Cavalry, by which means he suc- 
ceeded in reaching a railroad and damaging it. 
Also that our government had captured some 
of these very men, and treated them as prison- 
ers of war. This instance was mentioned to 
show that our being dressed in citizens' clothes 
did not take from us the right to be treated as 
United States soldiers. The plea went on 



176 

furtlier to state that we had told the object of 
our expedition ; that it was a purely military 
one, for the destruction of communications, and 
as such, entirely lawful according to the rules 
of war. What reply the Judge Advocate made 
to this, we never had the means of ascertaining. 

The trials proceeded rapidly. One man was 
taken out each day, and in about an hour re- 
turned. The table in the court room was cov- 
ered with bottles, newspapers, and novels, and 
the court passed its time daring trial in discuss- 
ing these. This was very well if the trial was, 
as they said, a mere matter of formality ; but 
if it was a trial in earnest, on which depended 
issues of life or death, it was most heartless 
conduct. 

At last the number of seven was reached, 
and they would probably have proceeded in 
trying others, had not General Mitchel, who 
was continually troubling them, now advanced, 
and shelled Chattanooga from the opposite side 
of the Tennessee river. This at once broke up 
the court-martial, and sent the officers in hot 
haste to their regiments to resist his progress. 
Soon after, General Morgan advanced through 
Cumberland Gap, and threatened Knoxville, 
which also rendered it necessary to remove us. 

They came in with ropes and began to tie us. 



V 
THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 177 

We did not at first understand this, and some 
supposed we were to be taken out for execution ; 
but we soon became convinced that it was only 
a change of place. They arranged us for trans- 
portation by first binding our hands together ; 
then, fixing our arms securely in the loops of 
long ropes, tied them firmly to our sides, after 
which we were coupled two and two. Kopes 
were used in fastening us instead of irons as 
before, because they had borrowed the latter 
for some Union prisoners, who had just been 
sent to Richmond ; therefore we had to be con- 
tent with a most liberal allowance of cotton 
rope. While they were thus arranging our 
manacles, I had a most amusing passage-at- 
words with the adjutant who was superintend- 
ing the operation. I said to him as politely as 
I could : 

"I suppose, sir, our destination is not 
known ?" 

" It is not known to you at any rate, sir," 
was the gruff rejoinder. 

This was noticed by the whole party, and I 
felt rather beaten ; but a moment later came my 
chance for revenge. He turned again to me, 
and said, in a dictatorial manner : 

Who was it that run your engine through ?" 



178 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

I bowed and returned in the blandest tone, 
" That is not known to you at any rate, Sir" 

All around roared with laughter, and the 
adjutant, reddening to the eyes, turned away, 
muttering that he believed I was the engineer 
myself ! 

When everything was in readiness, we bade 
an adieu to the capital of down-trodden East 
Tennessee. Oh ! what bitter memories cluster 
around that old gloomy building. It has been, 
one of the principal instruments in crushing the 
life and loyalty out of the hearts of a brave, 
but unfortunate people. May the day soon 
come when the suffering of East Tennessee will 
be richly repaid on the heads of its guilty au- 
thors ! 

While we remained here, our fare was of the 
most scanty character. We received it only 
twice a day, and then in homeopathic doses. 
We continually suffered with hunger while we 
were well. I, myself, became quite sick during 
our imprisonment here, and continued so for 
most of the summer. Several others were in 
the same condition. This was rather an advan- 
tage, for when sick we did not so much mind 
the scantiness of our diet. 

A number of Tennesseeans were removed 
with us. Among them was Captain Fry and 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 179 

Mr. Pierce. In conversation with the former, T 
learned the full particulars of his history, some 
incidents of which I had heard before leaving 
our camp. Pie had raised a company of his 
neighbors, and running the gauntlet of guarded 
roads, succeeded in reaching our army in Ken- 
tucky. Here he was elected captain, and re- 
mained for some time. After a while, the gene- 
ral in command wished him to go into Tennes- 
see, and there destroy the bridges on the 
Virginia and Tennessee Eailroad ; then to raise 
the loyal citizens of that vicinity, and hold the 
country till our forces could arrive. He refused 
to go, until assured of support from McClellan 
himself, who was at that time (the fall of 1861) 
in command of the whole United States army, 
and who promised that a column should ad- 
vance as soon as Fry succeeded. With this 
assurance, he departed on his perilous mission. 
He aroused the Union men in both Virginia 
and Tennessee, burned the bridges, and thus 
for a time destroyed the most important rebel 
line of communication ; and, with a force of 
fifteen hundred men, held the entire country 
embraced in his operations, and even seriously 
threatened Knoxville itself. Now was the time 
for our forces to have struck the decisive blow, 
and not only have redeemed East Tennessee 



180 

from its chains, but also severed the rebellion 
in halves ! It was perfectly practicable. A 
large body lay near Camp Dick Robinson, with 
only a trifling force in front to impede its pro- 
gress. But in the meantime, McClellan had 
chaiiged his plans, and without warning Fry, left 
him and his brave companions to their fate. 
The struggle was a brief one ; the secessionists, 
thus left to themselves, concentrated an over- 
whelming force against him. Several skirmishes 
were fought, and finally the Union force was 
compelled to disperse. Some of them suc- 
ceeded in reaching our lines in Kentucky. 
Others were caught, and several of these were 
hung without a trial ! Such were some of the 
murders that first rendered General Leadbetter 
notorious ! 

One of these cases is almost too horrible for 
belief I would hesitate to record it, were I not 
assured of its truth by the testimony of eye- 
witnesses separated by hundreds of miles. It 
was of a man named named Whan, who, on 
being arrested, acknowledged that he helped to 
burn the bridges, but refused to describe his 
companions. For this, he was put into a barrel 
driven full of small, sharp-pointed nails, and 
rolled down a steep hill — then taken out, all 
bleeding, and hung ! This was on Saturday 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 181 

and lie, witli his companions, was allowed to 
hang till Monday night, when some of his 
friends, at the risk of their own lives, came and 
took them down I Should we compromise with 
such fiends in human shape, and purchase their 
fellowship again, or give them the puishment 
that injured humanity demands? 

Fry passed the whole winter in the wild 
mountains with which Tennessee abounds, and 
in the spring he again gathered his neighbors 
together, a regiment strong, and tried to reach 
the Union lines. Kear the border, he was 
attacked by a superior rebel force, and after a 
severe contest, his band was dispersed, himself 
wounded and taken prisoner. This was on the 
5th of March, and he remained in solitary con- 
finement until he joined us on the 13th of June. 
He was an uneducated man, but possessed of 
great natural ability, and the most undaunted 
courage, with a heart as tender and sympa- 
thetic as a child's. 

We took no rations along, and were obliged 
to starve through, as we now had no guerillas 
along to buy us pies. On the way, the populace 
taunted us with Andrews' death, and charitably 
hoped that we might soon meet the same fate. 
But some of the officers talked with us in a 
friendly spirit, assuring us that we would not 
16 



182 DAEING AND SUFFERING: OR 

be hurt. This produced some impression, and 
taken in connection with what had been told us 
by members of the court-martial, and others at 
Knoxville, made us quite hopeful. 

When we neared the Atlanta city jail, which 
was to be our abode for many weary months, a 
crowd gathered as usual, and a man who called 
himself mayor of the city began to insult Cap- 
tain Fry, telling him that he knew him to be a 
rascal in his own country, and that he hoped 
soon to have the pleasure of hanging him. 
Then turning to us, he boasted that he had put 
the rope around Andrews' neck, and was wait- 
ing and anxious to do the same for us ! 

Tliis prison was smaller than that at Knox- 
ville, but was still a large edifice. The lower 
story was occupied by the jailor and his family. 
The upper contained four rooms, of which we, 
with Captain Fry, occupied one. The Ten- 
nesseeans were put into another, just across the 
entry from us. Our comrades, who had been 
left at Chattanooga, were in another ; and the 
last one, which was on the same side as ours, 
was frequently occupied by negroes who had 
been in search of the North Star. 

For some time here, our rations were com- 
paratively good and abundant. But after 
awhile, the task of feeding us was taken from 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 183 

tte jailor, who had at first assumed it, and then 
our fare became worse than it ever had been be- 
fore. The jailor himself was a kind man, and 
rather of Union sentiments. He showed us all 
the favor in his power, and, indeed, became so 
much suspected, that an odious old man named 
Thoer was hired to watch him. The constant 
vigilance of this antiquated scoundrel, with the 
superintendence of the officers of the guard, who 
were always at hand, prevented the jailor from 
befriending us as much as his heart dictated. 

Here we remained for a week in quietness and 
hope, thinking the Avorst of our trials were 
past. Little did we foresee how fearful a storm 
was soon to burst over us. 



184 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 



CHAPTBE XI. 

Cavalry Approach — Seven Removed from the Room — Sus- 
pense — Sentence of Death — Heart-rending Separation 
— Death and the Future — Not Prepared — Inhuman 
Haste — The Tragedy — Speech on the Scaffold — Breaking 
Ropes — Enemies Affected — Gloom of Survivors — Prayer. 

One day while we were very merry, amusing 
ourselves with games and stories, we saw a 
squadron of cavalry approaching. This did not 
at first excite any attention, for it was a com- 
mon thing to see bodies of horsemen in the 
streets ; but soon we observed them halt at our 
gate, and surround the prison. What could 
this mean? 

A moment after, the clink of the officers' 
swords was heard as they ascended the stair- 
way, and we knew that something unusual was 
about to take place. They paused at our door, 
threw it open, called the names of our seven 
companions, and took them out to the room 
opposite, putting the Tennesseeans in with us. 
One of our boys, named Robinson, was sick of 
a fever, and had to be raised to his feet, and 
supported out of the room. 

With throbbing hearts we asked one another 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 185 

the meaning of these strange proceedings. 
Some supposed they were to receive their ac- 
quittal ; others, still more sanguine, believed 
they were taken out of the room to be paroled, 
preparatory to an exchange. 

I was sick, too, but rose to my feet, oppressed 
with a nameless fear. A half crazy Kentuck- 
ian, who was with the Tennesseeans, came to me 
and wanted to play a game of cards. I struck 
the greasy pack out of his hands, and bade him 
leave me. 

A moment after, the door opened, and George 
D. Wilson entered, his step firm and his form 
erect, but his countenance pale as death. Some 
one asked a solution of the dreadful mystery, in 
a whisper, for his face silenced every one. 

*' We are to be executed immediately" was the 
awful reply, whispered with thrilling distinctness. 
The others came in all tied, ready for the scaf- 
fold. Then came the farewells— farewells with 
no hope of meeting again in this world ! It 
was a moment that seemed an age of measure- 
less sorrow. 

Our comrades were brave ; they were soldiers, 

and had often looked death in the face on the 

battle-field. They were ready, if need be, to 

die for their country ; but to die on the scaffold 

16* 



186 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

— to die as murderers die — seemed almost too 
hard for human nature to bear. 

Then, too, the prospect of a future world, 
into which they were thus to be hurled without 
a moment's preparation, was black and appalling. 
Most of them had been careless, and had no 
hope beyond the grave. Wilson was a pro- 
fessed infidel, and many a time had argued the 
truth of the Christian religion with me for a 
half day at a time ; but in this awful hour he 
said to me: 

" Pittenger, I believe you are right, now ! 
Oh I try to be better prepared when you come 
to die than I am." Then, laying his hand on 
my head with a muttered " God bless you," we 
parted. 

Shadrack was profane and reckless, but good- 
hearted and merry. Now, turning to us with a 
voice, the forced calmness of which was more 
affecting than a wail of agony, he said : 

'' Boys, I am not prepared to meet Jesus." 

When asked by some of us in tears to think 
of heaven, he answered, still in tones of thrill- 
ing calmness, " I'll try ! I'll try ! But I know 
I am not prepared." 

Slavens, who was a man of immense strength 
and iron resolution, turned to his friend Buft'um, 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 187 

and could only articulate, "Wife — children — 
tell" — when utterance failed. 

Scott was married only three days before he 
came to the army, and the thought of his young 
and sorrowing wife nearly drove him to despair. 
He could only clasp his hands in silent 
agony. 

Ross was the firmest of all. His eyes beamed 
with unnatural light, and there was not a tre- 
mor in his voice as he said, " Tell them at home, 
if any of you escape, that I died for my country, 
and did not regret it." 

All this transpired in a moment, and even 
then the Marshal and other officers standing by 
him in the door, exclaimed : 

" Hurry up there ! come on ! we can't wait I 

In this manner my poor comrades were hur- 
ried off. Robinson, who was too sick to walk, 
was dragged away with them. They asked 
leave to bid farewell to our other boys, who 
were confined in the adjoining room, but it was 
sternly refused ! 

Thus we parted. We saw the death cart 
containing our comrades drive off, surrounded 
by cavalry. In about an hour it came back 
emidty. The tragedy was complete ! 

Later in the evening, the Provost-Marshal 
came to the prison, and, in reply to our ques- 



188 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

tions, informed ns that our friends '' Had met 
their fate as brave men should die everywhere." 

The next day we obtained from the guards, 
who were always willing to talk with us in the 
absence of the officers, full particulars of the 
seven-fold murder. 

When our companions were mounted on the 
scaffold, Wilson asked permission to say a few 
words, which was granted — probably in the 
hope of hearing some confession which would 
justify them in the murder they were about to 
commit. But this was not his intention. It was 
a strange stand — a dying speech to a desperate 
audience, and under the most terrible circum- 
stances. 

But he was equal to the occasion. Unterri- 
fied by the near approach of death, he spoke 
his mind freely. He told them that " they were 
all in the wrong ; that he had no hard feelings 
toward the Southern people for what they were 
about to do, because they had been duped by 
their leaders, and induced by them to engage in 
the work of rebellion. He also said, that though 
he was condemned as a spy, yet he was none, 
and they well knew it. He was only a soldier in 
the performance of the duty he had been detailed 
to do; that he did not regret to die for his 
country, but only regretted the manner of his 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 189 

death. He concluded bj saying that they would 
yet live to regret the part they had taken in 
this rebellion, and would see the time when the 
old Union would be restored, and the flag of our 
country wave over the very ground occupied by 
his scaffold." 

This made a deep impression on them'nds of 
those who listened, and I often afterward heard 
it spoken of in terms of the highest admiration. 
"When he ceased, the signal was given, and the 
traps fell I* 

Five only remained dangling in the air ; for 
two of the seven, Campbell and Slavens, being 
very heavy men, broke the ropes, and fell to 
the ground insensible. In a short time they 

* A refugee from the State of Georgia, now in this city, 
who witnessed the execution, but, from peculiar circum- 
stances, does not make his name public, corroborates this 
statement, and adds, that these brave men were surrounded 
bj three or four hundred guerillas and partisan rangers, 
as they called themselves, who disputed for the honor of 
being the executioners. The matter was settled by the 
party taking a vote, when twelve were selected as the 
favored ones. The rebel soldiers who perpetrated this 
outrageous murder, spent the rest of the day in spreeing 
and jollification, many of them writing to their friends at 
home an account of the pleasure they felt in assisting in 
the hanging of *' seven blue-bellies," as they termed the 
Union soldiers. — Note from a Pamphlet entitled " Ohio 
Boys in Dixie,^^ published in New York in April, 1863. 



190 

recovered, and asked for a drink of water, wliicli 
was given them. Then they requested an hour 
to pray before entering the future world which 
lay so near and dark before them. This last 
petition was indignantly refused, and as soon as 
the ropes could be adjusted, they were com- 
pelled to re-ascend the scaffold, and were again 
turned off ! 

The whole proceeding, from beginning to 
end, was marked by the most revolting haste. 
They seemed to wish, by thus affording no time 
to prepare for death, to murder soul and body 
both. Even the worst criminals in our country 
are allowed some weeks to ask for God's mercy, 
before they are thrust into his presence ; but 
our poor boys, whose only crime was loving and 
trying to serve their country, were not allowed 
one moment ! Could the barbarity of fiends go 
further ? 

That afternoon was one of deepest gloom for 
those who remained. We knew not how soon 
we might be compelled to follow in the same 
path, and drink the same bitter cup our comrades 
drank. Once during the trial we had offered to 
accept the award of the court in one of the 
cases as the sentence of all, since we could 
not see the slightest reason for leaving some 
and taking others. At that time, however, we 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 191 

believed that all would be acquitted. Now 
every hope had vanished. 

But even without the addition of fear for our- 
selves, the parting from our loved friends, whose 
voices were still ringing in our ears, while they 
themselves had passed beyond the gates of death 
into the unknown land of shadows, was enough 
to rend the stoutest heart. There were tears 
then from eyes that shrank before no danger. 

But I could not shed a tear. A cloud of 
burning heat rushed to my head that seemed to 
scorch through every vein. For hours I 
scarcely knew where I was, or the loss I had 
sustained. Every glance around the room, 
which revealed the vacant places of our friends, 
would bring our sorrow freshly on us again. 
Thus the afternoon passed away in grief too 
deep for words. Slowly and silently the mo- 
ments wore on, and no one ventured to whisper 
of hope. 

At last some voice suggested that we should 
seek relief in prayer. The very idea seemed to 
convey consolation, and was eagerly accepted. 
Soon we knelt around the bare walls of our 
strange sanctuary, and with bleeding hearts 
drew near the throne of God. Captain Fry- 
first led us, and mingled sobs with strong sup- 
plications. Then each followed in his turn, with 



192 DARING AND SUFFEEING ; OR 

but one or two exceptions, and even these were 
kneeling with the rest. As the twilight deep- 
ened, our devotional exercises grew more so- 
lemn. In the lonely shadow of coming night, 
with eternity thus open tangibly before us, and 
standing on its very brink, we prayed with a 
fervor that those who dwell in safety can 
scarcely conceive. We besought our Father 
only that we might be prepared for the fate 
that was inevitable, and that as he had led us 
through great trials, he would be our Comforter, 
and sustain us still. Who will say that such 
prayer was not effectual ! It was heard in hea- 
ven. Even there, in that prison, surrounded 
by an armed guard, amid the gloom of coming 
danger, the peace of God, like a dove bearing 
the olive branch, descended into every broken 
and believing heart. It was a holy hour, and 
if the angels above ever bend from their bright 
mansions to comfort human sorrow, I do be- 
lieve that they were then hovering near. From 
that hour I date the birth of an immortal hope, 
and I believe that many of my companions 
also, on looking back, will realize that they 
passed from death to life in that dreary prison- 
room ! 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 193 



CHAPTER XII. 

Religions Experience — Conti-abaud Assistance — Intelli- 
gence of Negroes — Love of Freedom — WoUam's Recap- 
ture — A Friendly Preacher — Obtain Books — Disgusting 
Diet— Plays— Debates— Reading Hours — Envy the Birds 
— Dreams of Home— Telegraphing — Friends from oui 
Army — Hope Deferred — Union Society — Difficulties of 
Tobacco-chewers — Precious Books. 

From this time forward, we had religious 
exercises each morning and evening, and they 
were a blessed consolation to us — sustaining our 
hearts when every earthly avenue of hope had 
closed. Frequently we startled the guards 
who were around us, by the hymns we sang, for 
now the character of our songs was changed, 
and our thoughts and aspirations began to point 
upward. It is a delicate matter to speak of one's 
own religious experience, but in the hope of 
doing good, I will venture. At first my hopes 
were not bright. For days and weeks an im- 
penetrable cloud seemed to rest over me, and to 
vail heaven from my view ; sometimes for a 
moment it would give way, and show light and 
peace beyond, then close up, thick, and dark, 
and lowering, as ever. But at last the day 
17 



194 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

gradually arose, and I was enabled to rejoice in 
hopes the world can neither give nor take away. 

But these were long and weary days. Our 
room was of greater size than that in Chatta- 
nooga, and had larger windows, yet the heat 
was fearfully oppressive. Our other boys were 
put in the room with us, which made fifteen in 
all. One of them, named Wood, was very sick. 
He had been prostrated with the fever for nearly 
a month, and at this time his life was despaired 
of. This was not thought to be any great mis- 
fortune to him by the others, who administered 
consolation in a style worthy of the best of 
Job's friends. They reasoned, '^ Now, if you get 
well, you will only be hung. You had better 
try to die yourself, and thus you will outwit 
them." Wood, however, did not relish the 
counsel, and getting contrary, he recovered, 
"just for spite," as he often declared. He yet 
lives to laugh over the advice that his despairing 
associates gave him. 

We had friends in the waiters of the prison, 
though their faces were black. They assisted 
us by every means in their power. It was 
not long till they found that there was nothing 
we desired so much as to read the news ; and 
they taxed their ingenuity to gratify us. They 
would wait till the jailor or some of the guard 



THE GKEAT KAILKOAD ADVENTURE. 195 

had finished reading a paper, and laid it down, 
and then slyly purloin it. When meal time 
came, it would be put into the bottom of the 
pan in which our food was brought, and thus 
handed in to us. The paper had to be returned 
in the same way, to avoid suspicion.* The 
guards and officers would talk with us, and 
always finding us possessed of a knowledge of 
the events of the war, at least as far as the 
Southern papers gave it, came at last to think 
we had an instinctive idea of news — something 
like what the bee has of geometrical forms! 
They never suspected the negroes, though for 
several months it was only through their instru- 
mentality that we could obtain any definite 
information of what was going on in the world 
without. 

Having found the negroes thus intelligent and 
useful, hir beyoud what I had supposed possible, 
I questioned them about other matters. They 
were better informed than I had given them 
credit for, and knew enough to disbelieve all 

"^ In one of these papers I noticed a description of two 
Fed<?ral officers wlio had escaped from Macon, Georgia. It 
was Captain Geer. with whom I have lectured in several 
places since my return, and his comrade, Lieutenant Col- 
hns. Their adventures are recorded in a book called 
''Beyond the Lines.^^ 



196 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

the stories rebels told. When the whites were 
not present, they laughed at the grand victories 
the papers were publishing every day, but rather 
leaned to the opposite extreme, and gave them 
less credit than was their due, for they would 
believe that the Federal troops were always vic- 
torious. Even after McClellan's repulse before 
Kichmond, they continued, for weeks, to assure 
us that he had the town, and had beaten the 
rebels in every engagement ! 

They imagined that all the Northern troops 
were chivalrous soldiers, fighting for the uni- 
versal rights of man, and, of course, they 
esteemed it a high privilege to contribute to 
the comfort of such noble men. Some of them 
bad imbibed the idea, which is common with the 
poor whites of the South, that Lincoln is a 
negro or a mulatto; but most of them placed 
so little credit in the assertions of their masters, 
that they disbelieved this story also. But they 
never wavered in their belief that the Union 
troops would conquer, and that the result of 
the victory would be their freedom. I had 
extensive opportunities for observing them, as 
the room next to us was appropriated to the 
safe-keeping of negroes, and I never yet saw 
one who did not cherish an ardent desire for 
freedom, and wish and long for the time when 



THE GREAT KAILROAD ADVENTURE. 1^7 

the triumpli of the national forces would place 
the coveted boon within his grasp. 

One morning our jailor came to our room, 
and asked us if we knew John Wollam. We 
hesitated to answer, as we could not fathom the 
motives of the inquiry. But even while we 
deliberated among ourselves, John came up, 
and ended our doubts by greeting us heartily. 
He had been parted from us some three weeks, 
and in that time had suffered most incredible 
hardships in the manner I have narrated before. 
He joined us in our prayer-meeting with much 
good will. Now all the survivors of our party 
were together again. 

There is one Georgia minister I will always 
remember with gratitude, not that he was a 
Union man, for I have no evidence that he 
was, but because of his generosity to us. He 
was a Methodist clergyman in Atlanta, by the 
name of McDonnell. He came to visit us at 
the suggestion of our old jailor, who, seeing us 
engaged in religious exercises, naturally sup- 
posed we would like to talk with a preacher. 
We received him kindly, and an interesting 
conversation took place. Some of the boys 
were slightly offended by his first prayer, in 
which he petitioned that our lives might be 
spared, if consistent with the interests of the Con- 



198 DARING AKD SUFFERING ; OR 

federacy. We did not very well like the con- 
dition, but said nothing, and were afterward 
rewarded for our complacency. At my request, 
he loaned us a few books, and when these were 
read through, gave us still others, until we had 
read nearly his entire library. Those only who 
know what a terrible weariness it is to pass 
time without any definite employment, and 
with no means of relieving the hours that hang 
so heavily on their hands, or of diverting their 
thoughts from the one never-ending round, can 
form any idea of the great boon that a few 
good books bestowed on us. 

Our provision here became worse and less, 
until it very nearly reached the starvation 
point. For some months, the only food we 
received was a very short allowance of corn- 
bread, baked with all the bran in it, and with- 
out salt, with a little pork, mostly spoiled I 
Frequently the pork would be completely cov- 
ered with maggots, and disgusting as it was, 
hunger compelled us to eat it! Even then, 
there was not enough of this miserable fare to 
satisfy our appetites! What would those who 
spend their time in denouncing our government 
as the only enemy, and sympathize with ''our 
mistaken Southern brethren," who have been 
alienated by the misconduct of the loyal States, 



THE GREAT EAILROAD ADVENTURE. 199 

say, if these ^' brethren" had subjected them to 
the same treatment. Their sympathies would 
hardly have survived the trial. 

Dreary as the days were here, yet we did not 
surrender ourselves to gloomy forebodings and 
vain lamentings over our misfortunes. Al- 
though the fate of our companions seemed sus- 
pended over our heads by a single hair, yet we 
shunned despondency, and labored to provide 
such amusements as would relieve us of the 
heavy tedium of our prison-life. 

On that terrible day of execution, we threw 
away our cards, which before had been played 
almost day and night, and resolved to engage 
no more in that game. But the necessity of 
doing something prompted us to search for new 
pastimes. We carved a checker-board on the 
floor, and it was occupied from morning till 
evening by eager players. We all became 
very expert in checkers. To provide a more 
intellectual amusement, we also formed a de- 
bating society, and spent hour after hour in 
discussing quaint questions of every kind. 
Many were the long-winded speeches that were 
made, for time was no object; and if no one was 
convinced of a new position, we still had the 
consolation of knowing that there was no lost 
labor, where the labor itself was a pleasure. 



200 DARING AND SUFFERING ; OR 

In order to enjoy to the fullest extent the 
books we had so fortunately procured, we ap- 
pointed regular reading hours — two in the 
forenoon, and the same in the afternoon. Dur- 
ing this time, no one was allowed even to 
whisper. Some of our boys were a little wild 
and restless at times, and would break the 
rules; but generally our order was excellent. 
We gained much useful knowledge during 
these hours of intellectual employment in our 
novel school. 

But all our efforts to pleasantly while away 
those terribly long summer days were in vain. 
The tediousness, and oppressiveness, and vain 
longing for action, would press down on us closer 
and closer. Brown, who was one of the most 
restless of mortals, would amuse himself, as long 
as he could endure it, at the pastimes we. had 
devised, then suddenly cease playing, and com- 
mence pacing the floor like a caged bear ; when 
this, too, grew unendurable, he would stop at 
the door, and say, in the most piteous toaes (of 
course meant only for us to hear) " O ! kind sir, 
please let me out !" The feeling he expressed 
was shared by all. Never before could I realize 
the full value of liberty, and the horror of con- 
finement. Even in the prisons where we had 
hitherto been, the novelty of our situation, the 



THE GBEAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 201 

frequency of our removals, and the bustie and 
excitement of the trial, prevented the blank 
monotony of imprisonment from settling down 
on us as it did here, when the first few weeks 
had rolled by, and no intimations of our fate 
reached us. It was like the stillness and the 
death that brood over the Dead Sea. 

We would sit at the windows, in the sultry 
noon, and look out through the bars, at the free 
birds as they flew past, seemingly so merry and 
full of joyous life, and foolishly wish that we, 
too, were birds, that we might fly away, and be 
at peace. 

At long intervals, two of us would be per- 
mitted to go down into the yard, to do our 
washing. One day it came my turn ; it was 
then three months since I had stepped out of my 
room, and the unobscured vision of open air 
and sky made it seem like another world. I 
remember looking up at the snowy clouds, my 
eyes almost dazzled by the unusual light, and 
wondering, as I gazed on their beautiful and 
changing forms, whether beyond them lay a 
world of rest, in which were neither wars 
nor prisons. And with the thought came the 
fear that if I was once more permitted to mingle 
as a free man, away from the immediate pres- 
sure of danger, with the busy throng of life, I 



202 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

would forget my prison-made vows, and thns 
lose my claim to a world of never-fading light. 
Such a sense of weakness and helplessness came 
over me, that it was with a feeling almost of 
relief that I returned once more to my dark and 
narrow room, where the contrast between free- 
dom and bondage was less palpably forced on my 
view. 

All this time we hardly permitted ourselves 
to indulge a hope of ever getting home again. 
The friends we once knew in happier days, 
seemed separated from us by an impassable gulf; 
and when our minds would call up before us 
the scenes and loved ones of home, it was like 
treading on forbidden ground. But when the 
miseries of the day were passed, and we were 
wrapped in that sweet slumber that ever visits 
the weary alike in prison and palace, there was 
no longer any restraint, and we were once more 
at home — once more in the enjoyment of love 
and freedom. 

Often have I seen in dreams the streets and 
buildings of my own town rise before me, and 
have felt a thrilling pleasure in contemplating 
them, as I wended my way towards the sacred 
precincts for ever hallowed by affection. But the 
waking from these incursions into the realms 
of paradise was sad beyond measure, and tlie 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 203 

cold, bcare walls of pi-ison never looked half 
so dreary, as wlien seen in contrast with the 
visions which had just been dispersed by the 
morning light. 

An anecdote here will fitly illustrate the 
affection and exaggerated reverence we felt for 
what we, to the great annoyance of the guards 
and citizens, insisted on calling ''God's coun- 
try." I had been reading one of Bascom's ser- 
mons, from a book which the minister had 
loaned us, on '*The Joys of Heaven." All lis- 
tened to his magnificent description with the 
greatest of interest, and when it was finished, 
some one started the query as to whether they 
would rather be in heaven, safe from all 
harm, or in Cincinnati. After a debate which 
was conducted with great animation on both 
sides, the majority concluded, no doubt honest- 
ly, that they would rather be in Cincinnati — 
for a while, at least! 

In order to keep thoroughly posted, we 
opened communications to every room in the 
prison. Those on the other side of the entry, 
Ave reached by means of a small stick, attached 
to a string, and thrown under the door. There 
Avas a chimney came up between our room and 
the other on the same side of the entry; each 
of our stove-pipes led into this chimney at 



204 



points directly opposite, and by taking off the 
pipes, we could talk through, but there was 
danger of being overheard. To obviate this, 
we split a long lath off the side of our room, 
in such a way as to be able to take it down 
and put it up at pleasure. This we used for 
passing notes backward and forward through 
this concealed passage, and it became very use- 
ful when we afterward contemplated an escape. 
One morning the guard brought up some 
prisoners, and as soon as they had retired, we 
resorted to our usual method of telegraphing, 
to ascertain their character. To our great sur- 
prise and pleasure, we found that two of them 
were from the Tenth Wisconsin, a regiment in 
our own brigade. They told us that we had 
long since been given up for dead,^ and that 
our comrades were vowing vengeance for our 
murder. They were quite surprised to find so 
many of us still alive. The other two were 
regulars, who had been captured on the coast 
of Florida. These soldiers remained with us 
till we were taken to Eichmond. From them 

* All onr friends at home believed we were executed. 
My obituarj notice was published in our county paper, 
and the Rev. Alexander Clark was invited to preach my 
funeral sermon, which providential circumstances alone 
prevented. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 205 

we gained a complete detail of the movements 
of our army since we had left it. 

One of the hardest things we had to endure 
was the rejoicing that accompanied McClellan's 
flight from Eichmond. Before this occurrence, 
the secessionists were down-spirited and despair- 
ing ; but afterward they were jubilant. About 
the last of May, a prominent officer said to me : 
" Any other officer of yours but McClellan, 
would now take Eichmond, for we have not 
men enough at present to offer successful resist- 
ance ; but he will fortify each step of his way, 
and lay grand plans, and thus delay until we 
can raise men enough by the conscript law to 
defeat him." I did not then think that his pre- 
diction would be verified, and hoped that 
McClellan would show that he was not delaying 
for nothing ; but when I heard of the preci- 
pitate retreat to Harrison's Landing, I was 
ready to confess that the Confederate officer had 
been more penetrating in his views than my- 
self. From this moment, the tide of victory 
seemed to set to the southward side, with a still 
deeper and stronger flow, till the next spring, 
when it returned again. 

I can preserve no order of time in relating 
the events of these tedious months, which slowly 
rolled away their ponderous length. It was 
18 



206 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

almost a perfect isolation from the world, with 
little hope of ever again mingling in its busy 
throng. As each month closed, we were 
startled by the thought we were still alive — 
that the bolt had not yet descended — and we 
surmised and wondered how much longer it 
could be delayed. At last a small ray of hope 
began to arise — very feeble at first — based on 
the long and incomprehensible reprieve we were 
enjoying. As week after week glided tediously 
away, marked only by the monotony which is 
more wearying to heart and frame than the 
most severe anguish, this hope grew stronger ; 
yet still so little assured that the most trifling 
circumstance, such as strengthening the guard, 
or a visit from the officers, was sufficient to 
blast the hopes we were beginning so fondly to 
cherish. 

I saw many instances of the iron rule with 
which the Southern Union men are kept in sub- 
jection. The strictest espionage was maintained 
through every order of society. The spies of the 
government would pretend to be Union men, and 
thus worm themselves into^ loyal societies ; and 
when they had learned the names of the mem- 
bers, would denounce them to the govern- 
ment. It was not necessary to be particular 
about truth, as the suspicion of guilt, in their 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 207 

mode of procedure, was just as good as its posi- 
tive evidence. One day seventy men and twelve 
women were arrested, and sent in irons to Eicli- 
mond ! Man j other instances of this remorse- 
less tyranny will be given hereafter. 

Most of our boys were tobacco- chewers, and 
were driven to numberless expedients to obtain 
that which some of them declared they valued 
more than their daily food. There were several 
articles qf which the rebels had not seen fit to 
rob us, such as handkerchiefs and a few vests ; 
These were now sold to the surrounding guards. 
Andrews had given Hawkins a very large, fine 
coat, and as there seemed to be no prospect of 
taking it home, he sold it to the jailor, and in- 
vested the proceeds in tobacco, apples, &;c., 
which he generously divided among his com- 
rades. 

I wanted books more than anything else, and 
sold my vest and a pocket-book the rebels had 
left when they took what was in it, and bought 
three books — all gems — " Paradise Lost," " Pil- 
grim's Progress," and " Pollock's Course of 
Time." These I nearly committed to memory. 
It was a profitable employment, while I am 
sure it very much lightened and shortened 
these interminable days. 



208 DARING AND SUFFERING: OR 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Contemplated Escape — Startling Intelligence — Our Doom 
Pronounced from Richmond — Hesitate no Longer — Our 
Plan — All Ready — Supper — Farewell — Life or Death — 
Seize the Jailor — Guns Wrested from Guards — Alarm 
Given — Scaling the Wall — Guards Fire — Terrible Chase 
— Six Recaptured — Wood and Wilson Reach the Gulf — 
Dorsev's Narrative — Porter's Account — Boasting of the 
Guards — Barlow's Cruel Death. 

We frequently talked and plotted about 
making our escape. All agreed, that if tliey 
should proceed to try us, we should make one 
desperate effort for life ; for we had learned by 
sad experience, that they did not take the 
trouble of going to the formality of a trial 
unless they were fully resolved to hang the ac- 
cused. But as time rolled on, and the dreaded 
preparations for trial were not made, the impris- 
onment became daily more unendurable. The 
food was of a poorer quality, and more scanty 
at that. It was, therefore, proposed that we 
should make a bold strike for freedom. The 
question was a serious one. On the one hand 
was the bright prize of liberty — of which none 
ever knew the value better than we, — shining 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 209 

ahead as the sure reward of success. But on 
the other hand was the danger o£ failure. We 
were in the very center of the Confederacy, and 
the nearest point where we could reach our lines 
was two hundred miles distant. This journey 
had to be made through the enemy's country, 
and by traveling at night, with no guide but 
the stars, which the envious clouds might con- 
ceal from us for many successive nights, as they 
had done before. Then there was the proba- 
bility that those who were retaken would be 
mercilessly dealt with, if not instantly put to 
death. 

It was a grave question. And then the great 
heat of the days, added to our enfeebled condi- 
tion, caused by the close confinement, and the 
meagre character of our diet, as w^ell as the 
actual sickness of some of our party, including 
myself, induced me to believe that the attempt 
should at least be postponed. Still, day by 
day, we discussed the subject. -It afforded us 
an inexhaustible theme for conversation, and 
had this further advantage that all the know- 
ledge possessed by the party collectively was 
communicated to each one. Besides, the plans 
were laid by which to avoid pursuit, and all 
possible information respecting the country ol)- 
tained fi-om the guards and negroes, and then 
IS'-^ 



210 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

we felt quite prepared for the issue when it 
should come. 

At last we received a piece of intelligence 
which made us resolve to hesitate no longer. 
Colonel Lee, Provost-Marshal, came to our room 
one morning, and after talking some time, told 
us that he had just received a letter from the 
Secretary of "War, asking why all the part}^ had 
not been executed. He had answered that he 
did not know, but referred him to the court- 
martial which had tried our comrades at Knox- 
ville. This court had dispersed long before, 
and I feel hopeful that many of the perjured 
villains have fallen beneath the avenging bullets 
of Union soldiers ! So the Secretary could not 
have obtained much information from them. A 
few days after, we received still further and more 
alarming information. 

One of the regular soldiers in the adjoining 
room overheard the officer of the guard telling 
the jailor that Colonel Lee had received another 
letter from the Secretary, ordering our imme- 
diate execution. This was duly telegraphed to 
us through the stove-pipe, and at once put an 
end to all our deliberations. The time had 
come for us to save ourselves or perish. 

Quietly we sat down and arranged our plans. 
We were in an upper story, and several locked 



THE GEE AT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 211 

doors had to be opened before we could reach, 
the ground. There were seven guards keeping 
watch over us, and a large force near bj ready 
to rush to their assistance at the slio^htest notice. 
It was evident that our only chance of success 
lay in moving very quickly and silently. We 
could not leave at night, for then all the doors 
were closed, and we had no means of opening 
them. The best time was at supper, which was 
brought a little before sundown, and by starting 
then, we would soon have the cover of dark- 
ness to conceal our flight. The soldiers in the 
next room, and a deserter who was confined 
with them, agreed to go with us, if we would 
open their door. Only one of the Tennesseeans, 
named Barlow, would risk the trial, although 
they were anxious for the movement before it 
was seriously contemplated. 

The plan on which we finally settled, was to 
seize the jailor when he came to take out the 
buckets in which our supper was brought, 
holding him so that he could make no 
noise, take the keys from him, and let Buf- 
fum unlock the doors and release the remaining 
prisoners. While this was being done, our 
other boys would divide into two squads, 
and, cautiously descending the stairway, pounce 
upon the guards, and take their guns from 



212 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

them; tlien, at a signal, we would all come 
down, and marcli, thus armed, on our home- 
ward journey. We very nearly succeeded in 
our programme. 

The second day after receiving the news, all 
our plans were completed. We had patched 
our clothes as best we could, and made cloth 
moccasins to protect our feet, for many of our 
shoes were altogether worn out. Now we only 
awaited the approach of the appointed hour. 
Slowly the sun rolled down the west ; slowly 
the shadows lengthened in the east, till the 
gloomy shade of the jail had nearly reached the 
crest of the hill which usually marked our sup- 
per time. The eventful hour drew nigh. We 
bade one another a solemn farewell, for we 
knew not when we should meet again on earth, 
or how many of us might be cold and lifeless 
before the stars shone out. Captain Fry, who 
was tender-hearted as a child, wept at the part- 
ing. He had two coats, and, as he could not 
take both with him, he gave one to me. I 
needed it extremel}^, for I was very nearly des- 
titute of clothing. 

Everything was now in readiness. I had 
piled up the books of the minister, some of 
which we still retained, in the corner, and had 



THE GKEAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 213 

written him a note thanking him for the nse of 
them. We had on our coats, and had a few 
caneS; and bottles, and pieces of lath, taken out 
of the wall, which were to be used in the fight 
down stairs, if necessary. Then came the supper. 
It was brought in by negroes, the jailor stand- 
ing at the door. Our preparations for leaving 
were not noticed. We ate in silence, stowing 
part of the bread in our pockets for future 
emergencies. It so happened that the old 
watchman, whom everybody hated, was away. 
It was well for him, as he would have received 
little mercy. 

After the jailor had given their food to the in- 
mates of the other rooms, he came back to ours. 
We asked him to let Barlow come over and 
stay with us that night. He consented, and 
soon Barlow was with ns. Now was the time 
for action. 

It was a thrilling moment ! On the action 
of the next few minutes hung the issues, proba- 
bly, of life or death. I confess that for one 
moment the blood flowed to my heart with a 
sharp throb of pain. The others were pale, but 
determined. As for Captain Fry, who was to 
initiate the movement, and whom I had seen 
Aveeping a few minutes before — he was perfectly 
calm, and his face wore a pleasant smile. He 



214 BAKING AND SUFFEEING ; OR 

stepped out of the door as if it^was the most 
natural action in the world, and said, very 
quietly : 

'' A pleasant evening, Mr. Turner." 

''Yes, rather pleasant," responded the latter, 
looking as if he could not understand what Fry 
was out there for. 

" "We feel like taking a little walk this eve- 
ning," continued the captain. 

The astonishment of the jailor now knew no 
bounds. "What! How! Where!" he ex- 
claimed, in broken ejaculations. 

Fry's countenance grew darker as he clasped 
the old man in his arms, and said : 

" We haye stayed as long as we can stand it, 
and we now are going to leave, and let out the 
other prisoners ; so give up the keys, and make 
no noise, or it will be the worse for you !" 

Turner tightened his grasp on the keys des- 
perately, and exclaimed, " You can't do that I" 
then commenced in a loud tone, " Guar" — when 
my hand closed across his mouth and stifled the 
incipient call for help. 

It was not our intention to hurt the old man, 
for he had been kind to us ; but it was neces- 
sary to keep him quiet. He possessed great 
strength, and struggled yery hard, managing to 
bite my finger ; but we held him fast, and easily 



Q 



Pi 




THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 215 

wrestled the keys from liim. BufFum was soon 
at work on the locks of the doors. 

Meantime, our companions had quietly de- 
scended the stairway, and burst out on the 
guards. There were seven of them, but they 
were so much taken by surprise as to be inca- 
pable of resistance. Our boys divided into two 
parties, one for the front and the other for the 
back door. The latter was completely success- 
ful, capturing the guard, and taking their guns 
from them without the least alarm being given. 

The attack at the front door was made with 
equal skill and bravery, and the guards who 
stood near were at once secured. Unfortunately 
there were two in the yard gate, which happened 
to be open. As soon as these saw the charge 
made, they, without waiting to attempt resist- 
ance, ran through the gate, shrieking, '^Help! 
murder!" in tones that aroused the whole 
neighborhood. There were troops near at 
hand, who instantly rushed to the rescue. 

Our boys saw their peril, and knew that the 
part of our scheme which provided for a regu- 
lar and quiet departure was defeated, and they 
endeavored to save themselves. They threw 
away the guns, which now would only hinder 
their flight, and scaled the wall, some ten feet 
in hight, and made for the woods, nearly a mile 



216 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

distant. It was a close chase. Several times 
they were fired on by the pursuing rebels, but 
fortunately not hit. 

We, who were above, heard the noise, and 
were admonished by it to take our leave as 
soon as possible. Buffum had just succeeded 
in unlocking the door that kept in our other 
soldiers, who at once came out. The deserter 
confined with them, who was the most powerful 
and active of the whole party, also broke out, 
and passed by where Fry and myself still held 
the jailor, like a tiger on the leap. When he 
reached the yard, he found two soldiers before 
him, with their bayonets at a charge. Without 
a moment's hesitation, he seized them, cutting 
his hands severely, but dashing them aside 
with such violence as nearly to throw the rebels 
from their feet, and bounded on his way. His 
almost incredible swiftness soon placed him in. 
advance of all the fugitives. 

Captain Fry and I started down stairs 
together. He was a little in advance, and at 
once saw there was no chance in the front yard, 
which was now filled with armed rebels, and 
darted to the back door. Here he scaled the 
wall just in time to get away, after a most des- 
perate chase, being repeatedly fired upon by 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 217 

the guards, who were only a few feet from him, 
but, fortunately, was unharmed. 

I did not so soon comprehend the state of 
affairs, (probably because I am near-sighted,) 
and rushed to the front yard. Here I saw two 
rebels who seemed perfectly distracted, and 
were throwing their guns wildly about and 
exclaiming: "What shall we do? O! what 
shall we do?" Not thinking them very dan- 
gerous, I" darted past them, but was checked 
by a stream of less frightened guards pouring 
through the gate. Seeing then that there was 
no chance of escape in that direction, I turned 
and regained the jail. One man snapped his 
gun at me, but, fortunately, it did not go off. 
I instantly tried the back yard, and succeeded 
in getting to the top of the wall ; but here I 
found that the rebels had again been too fast 
for me, and were around under the wall out- 
side. Under these circumstances, I could do 
no better than surrender. 

I was taken back to prison, and instead of 
going to my own room, went to that occupied 
by the prisoners of war, who had all been re- 
captured and put in again. Buffam, too, who 
had managed to get over the wall, was retaken 
and brought back. Parrott and Keddick were 
19 



218 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

captured inside of the wall, and Mason and Ben- 
singer the next day, making six of our party 
who were retaken. 

From the window where I was, I had a good 
view of all the proceedings below. In a very 
short time, the whole force of the place, includ- 
ing a regiment of cavalry, was drawn up in 
front of the jail. I heard Colonel Lee, (the 
Provost-Marshal,) give his orders. He said : 
" Don't take one of the villains alive ! Shoot 
them down, and let them lie in the woods for 
the birds and hogs to eat !" He also ordered 
pickets to be placed at the ferries of the Chatta- 
hoochie, along the railroad, and at all cross- 
roads. This arrangement pleased me, for these 
were the very places we had agreed to avoid, 
and I was sure none of the boys would be 
caught there. Our intention had been to travel 
in the night time, through the woods, and cross 
the rivers on logs, as far from the ferries as 
possible. 

Eight escaped. AVood and Wilson traveled 
southward, and, after passing through a series 
of the most startling adventures, that recall the 
old Indian tales we have all listened to in the 
winter evenings, they succeeded in reaching the 
Gulf, where they were taken on board a United 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 219 

States ship, and brought around to Wash- 
ington. 

Porter and Wollam started westward. Their 
journey was a most perilous one. I will insert 
a short account which Porter has since fur- 
nished me. 

'' We started on the 16th of October, and 
I'cached the Federal lines on the 18th of No- 
vember. During this time, we endured all the 
hardships imaginable. We traveled night and 
day, sleeping mostly in the woods, and subsist- 
ing on wild grapes, chestnuts, hickory- nuts, 
walnuts, and some few sweet potatoes. Occa- 
sionally, we got a little corn-bread from the 
poor class of whites and the negroes. It was 
miserable stuft". Several times we slipped into 
the fields where the negroes were at work, and 
stole the provisions they had brought out for 
their dinner. Once we were seven days with- 
out a bite of bread, and often went without for 
two or three days. 

" We suffered much with cold, for our clothes 
were very poor. We slept but twice in houses 
daring the whole journey. One night we 
traveled till we became chilled and weary ; it 
was very late, and we were nearly frozen, when 
we fortunately discovered a nest of hogs. Im- 
mediately we routed them up, and, lying down 



220 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

in the warm retreat they had left, slept till 
morning ! 

^' Many streams were in our way, which we 
were obliged to wade, or float across on logs. 
After twenty-two days of such privations, we 
reached the Tennessee river, twenty-seven 
miles below Bridgeport. Here we pressed a 
canoe into the service, and started down the 
river. We would run the canoe at night, and 
hide it and ourselves in the day time. When 
we arrived at the head of the Muscle Shoals, 
we were compelled to abandon our canoe on 
account of low water, and make a circuit of 
forty miles around. When we reached the foot 
of the Shoals, we procured a skift^ and continued 
our voyage until within twelve miles of Pitts- 
burg Landing. Here we left the river, and 
striking across the country to Corinth, reached 
there in safety. Thus, after six months of suf- 
fering, we were once more under the glorious 
flag of the free." 

These* will serve as specimens of what the 

* Hawkins and mjself associated, and made good our 
escape. We tliink all our party escaped to tlie woods. 
Whether any were afterward caught by the rebels, we 
know not. We traveled by starlight for more than three 
weeks. After twenty-one days of fatigue and hunger — 
living most of the time on corn or persimmons — occasion- 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 221 

brave boys endured in the truly herculean task of 
penetrating for hundreds of miles — in fact, from 
the very center of the Confederacy to its cir- 
cumference — in different directions. It is an 
achievement I can not look upon without won- 
der, and in dangers to be encountered, and 
difficulties to be overcome, is at least equal to 
the proudest exploits of Park or Livingstone ! 

All night long the guards talked over their 
adventures. Generally they praised their own 
bravery to the skies, but occasionally one who 
had arrived since the affray, would suggest that 
it was not very much to their credit to let un- 

ally a few raw sweet potatoes or a head of cabbage — dodg- 
ing the rebel pickets and cavalrj, climbing mountains, 
dragging through brush, and wading streams, we final- 
ly were so fortunate as to meet some Union men in the 
Cumberland Mountains. We met them, three in number, 
in the woods, and asked them to give us some supper, 
stating that we had no money, but we belonged to the 
rebel army, had been sick and left behind, and were now 
on our way to rejoin our regiments. They refused to sup- 
ply our wants, and finally openly declared themselves to 
be Union men. When we became satisfied that they 
were all right, we made known our true character, and 
warmer friends were never met. They lodged and fed us, 
then piloted us to another Union man who did the same, 
and he to another ; thus we were passed from one to another 
till we arrived at Somerset, Kentucky, where we procured 
transportation to our regiments. — Extract from an Account 
published by D. A. Dorsey. 

19* 



222 DABING AND SUFFERING ; OR 

armed men snatch their guns from them ; but 
these hinted slanders were always received with 
the contempt they deserved, and the work of 
self-glorifying went on ! One wondered at the 
speed of the Yankees, who had been kept in 
prison so long ; another accounted for it by 
saying that the}^ had received so much practice 
in that line, in all the battles they had fought, 
that it was no wonder if they were fleet of 
foot. This sally was received with prodigious 
applause. 

I heard some confused sounds of distress from 
the room of the Tennesseeans, and on inquiring 
what was the matter, learned that Barlow had 
broken his ankle. He had gone down into the 
yard with our party, but in jumping from the 
wall, had received this very serious injury. 
Here he was found by a guard, who at first 
threatened to shoot him ; but on being persuaded 
not to do that, ordered him to get up and lead 
the way into the jail. Barlow tried to do so, 
but fell down again. Then this inhuman guard 
punched him with the bayonet, and made him 
crawl, in all the agony that pain could produce, 
back to his cell, and as he went, kept hurrying 
him along by the sharp admonition of the 
bayonet ! When here, his companions asked 
for surgical aid for him, but the Confederate 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 223 

authorities refused it, saying that he had caused 
the injury himself, and that they rather preferred 
that it should kill him ! Their wishes were 
gratified. For months he lingered on in the 
greatest pain, until, finally, the leg mortified, and 
terminated his life. He was quite a young man 
— only eighteen — and had just been married 
when he was arrested. Thus died, in darkness 
and dungeon, one other East Tennessee martyr I 



224 



CHAPTEK XIY. 

Despair and Hope — Bitten Finger — Removed to Barracks 
— Greater Comfort — Jack Wells — Cruel Punishment of 
Tennesseeans — Story of a Spy — Help Him to Escape — 
Virtue of a Coat — A Practical Joke — Unionism — Sweet 
Potatoes — Enlisting in Rebel Army — Description of a 
Day — Happy News — Start for Richmond — Not Tied — 
Night Journey — Varied Incidents — Lynchburg — Rebel 
Audacity Punished — Suffering from the Cold — Arrival 
in Richmond. 

All night long I lay in tlie hammock that 
one of the regulars had swung by the window, 
and listened to the boasting below. 

" Sadly I thought of the morrow." 

I had little doubt now, that the full weight of 
their vengeance would fall on every one who 
had been recaptured. And then, too, was the 
news we had received, and which had induced 
•us to make our desperate effort to escape ! We 
could scarcely hope that the death which had so 
long stared us in the face would now be longer 
delayed. And such a death ! No vision of 
glory to dazzle the sight, and hide the grim 
monster from view, or wreathe him in flowers. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 225 

No eye of friends beholding the last struggle, 
and sure, if you acted well your part, to tell it 
to those whose love and praise were more than 
life. Nothing but ignominy and an impene- 
trable darkness, beyond which no loving eye 
might ever pierce ! But even as the cold hor- 
ror of the scaffold and the vision of the heartless, 
jeering crowd, rose once more freshly before me, 
I looked out in the clear night, and up to the 
shining stars, and felt that I had one Friend — 
that He who dwelt above the stars, and to whom 
I had plighted my faith, would not forsake me, 
even if I had to pass through the very " valley 
of the shadow of death." With the thought 
came a still and heavenly peace once more — a 
peace that visits only those who feel, in the 
midst of sorrow and fear, that there is a blissful 
rest beyond the night bounding life's fleeting 
day! 

The next morning, the jailor put me in the 
room I had formerly occupied, with the remain- 
der of my companions. He told us that a man 
had put his hand over his mouth, and nearly 
smothered him, but added, with great satisfac- 
tion: "I bit his finger terribly, and gave the 
rascal a mark he will carry to the grave with 
him." However, his teeth were not so sharp 
as he thought, and he only managed to inflict a 



226 

slight scratcli. He had no suspicion that I was 
the person to whom he referred, as his fright 
had prevented him from observing anything. 
For a while, he was rather cross, and brought 
up the guards when he came to feed us; but 
this soon wore off. 

About the middle of the day, some officers 
came, and, with many threats, asked us which 
way our boys intended to travel. I answered, 
" I heard them say that they were going to try 
to get to our lines, and that traveling in any 
direction would bring them there, for our men 
had you surrounded." They asked no more 
questions, but retired, satisfied that there was 
no information to be gained. 

Our anticipations of worse treatment in con- 
sequence of our attempted escape were not real- 
ized. Colonel Lee thought the jail was no 
longer a safe place, and ordered us to be taken 
to the city barracks. Our apartment here was 
far more pleasant than our quarters in the jail 
had been. It was large, well lighted, and pro- 
vided with a fire-place, which the chilliness of 
the days (it was now in October) made a great 
acquisition. It also commanded a view of one 
of the busiest public squares of Atlanta, and we 
would sit in the windows, which had no bars 
across them, and watch the tide of human life 



THE GREAT RAILKOAD ADVENTURE. 227 

that flowed before us, for hours at a time, 
with an interest that only our long seclusion 
from the world could have given. 

Jack Wells, the commander of the barracks, 
had been an old United States soldier. Being 
thus brought up under a more honorable sys- 
tem than obtains in the South at present, he 
did not consider it derogatory to his dignity to 
treat prisoners kindly. He would come around 
to our room and talk with us by the hour — 
telling us great stories of his adventures, and 
receiving as great in return. Most of the time 
he was half drunk, and very frequently did not 
stop at the half way point. In these cases, and 
when he was in a communicative mood, he 
would tell us that he did not care a cent which 
side whipped — that he only held his present 
position to avoid being conscripted. But his 
masters knew him to be such a faithful, vigi- 
lant officer, and he could so readily control the 
rude mass who occupied the rebel portion of 
the barracks, that they readily forgave these 
little slips of the tongue. We passed our time 
while here more pleasantly than at any other 
place in the Confederacy ; yet even here, our 
path was not one of roses. The following inci- 
dents will prove this : 

The Tennesseeans were confined with us, 



228 

making twenty in all. Our provisions, which 
were still very scanty, were handed around m a 
tray. Mr. Pierce, who is mentioned before, one 
time conceived his allowance to be too small, and 
threw it back into the tray again. Not a word 
was spoken on either side ; but in a few minutes 
the guards came up, and, seizing Pierce, took 
him out of the room into the cold hall, and 
tying his hands before his knees, with a stick 
inserted across under his knees and over his 
arms, in the way that soldiers call '' bucking," 
they left him there all night. This indignity 
was perpetrated on an old man over sixty ! 

One of the guards was a malicious fellow, 
who delighted in teasing our men by asking 
them how they liked being shut up in a prison, 
"playing checkers with their noses on the 
windows," &c. One day, when he was talking 
as usual, a Tennesseean, named Barker, replied 
that he need not be so proud of it, for he would 
some time have to work like a slave, in the 
cotton-fields, to help pay the expenses of the 
war. The guard reported this treasonable 
remark to the commander. Poor Barker was 
seized and taken to the punishment-room up 
stairs, and there suspended by the heels till he 
fainted ; then let down until he revived, then 
hung up again. This was continued till they 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 229 

were satisfied, when tie was taken down, and 
ip%t into a little, dark dungeon, only about four 
feet square, and there kept twenty-four hours 
with nothing to eat I 

While in this prison, I had the heartfelt plea- 
sure of helping one man to escape. The guards, 
and, indeed, all the poorer class of Southerners, 
were very illiterate. Out of twenty-six who 
guarded us, only two or three could write at all, 
and these not enough to be of any service. 
"Wells wrote a hand that nobody but himself 
could read, and even he not always. Therefore 
he often came for the prisoners to write short 
articles for him. On one of these occasions I 
was in the office, which was just by our room, 
and equally guarded, writing a requisition for 
provisions. While thus engaged, a man, 
dressed in the uniform of a rebel officer, was 
brought in for confinement in the barracks. 
He appeared to be very drunk, but remon- 
strated so hard against being put into the room 
where the remainder of the prisoners were kept, 
that Wells consented to let him stay for a while 
in his office. His money was not taken from 
him, for Wells, not knowing the charge against 
him, believed he was arrested only for being 
drunk — an oflence with which he had a good 
deal of sympathy. Wells had some business to 
20 



280 PARING AND SUFFERING ; OR 

attend to, and wert out. A sergeant was with 
us, luit he, too, soon took his departure, leaving 
us ak)ne. I was busy writing, but, looking up, 
I saw the stranger approaehing nie. There 
was no trace of drunkenness about him. I 
watched his movements attentively. Soon he 
was standing by me. 

" You are a prisoner ?" ho queried. 

" Yes, sir." 

"One they call engine-thieves ?" he con- 
tinued. 

I again answered in the affirmative. 

*'Iknow you," said he; " I know all about 
you. I was here when your comrades were 
hung. Brave men they were, and the cruel 
deed will yet be avenged. I am not afraid to 
trust you. They don't yet know who I am, 
but they will learn to-morrow, and then, if I am 
still in their hands, I will die, for I am a s/)y 
from the Federal aniiy. Can't you help me to 
escape ?" 

I was astonished at this revelation, and 
for a moment doubted his character, think- 
ing that his aim might be to betray me for a 
sellish advantage. I put a few hasty questions 
to him, to test his knowledge of the Federal 
army. The answers were satisfactory, and seeing 



THE GREAT KAILKOAD ADVENTURE. 231 

notliing })ut truth in his clear cjc, I hesitated 
na longer, but asked : 

''What can I do for you ?" 

lie answered : " Can't you write me a pass, 
and sign the commander's name to it ?" 

" That," I returned, '' would proVjably be de- 
tected ; but I think I can put you on a better 
plan. Take that overcoat," pointing to one 
belonging to Wells, and lying on the foot of a 
bed, " put it around you, and just walk past the 
guards as independently as though you owned 
the entire establishment. It is now nearly 
dark, and the chances are that you will not be 
halted by the guard at all." 

'- A good idea," said he, ♦Til try it." 

At once folding himself in the coat, he bade 
me an affectionate adieu. Eagerly I sat with 
beating heart in the deepening twilight, listening 
for any sound that might betray the success or 
failure of the scheme ; but all was silence. I 
have since learned that the guard, seeing the 
familiar coat, supposed that, of course, its 
owner was in it, and allowed it to pass unchal- 
lenged ! A moment after, the sergeant came in, 
and I instantly engaged him in conversation, 
inducing him to tell some good stories, to keep 
hiin from missing my companion, and to allow 



232 

as mucli time for a start as possible, before the 
inevitable alarm was given. I succeeded per- 
fectly for some five minutes, when Wells came 
in, threw an uneasy glance around the room, 
and at once exclaimed : 

" Sergeant, where is that officer ?'' 

The sergeant protested that he knew nothing 
about him ; that he was not in the room when 
he entered. 

Wells then turned to me, and demanded : 

" Pittenger, where's that officer ?" 

" What officer ?" 

'^ That officer I put in here." 

" Oh ! that drunken fellow ?" 

''Yes; where is he?" 

" The last I saw of him, he picked up his 
coat, and said he was going to supper.* 

'' Going to supper, was he ! Ho 1 I see it I 
Sergeant, run to the guards, and tell them if 
they let him out, I will have every one of fEiem 
hung up by the heels." 

This was rather a useless punishment, consid- 
ering that the prisoner was already far away. 

But the sergeant departed to muster the 

* I do not pretend to justify tlie falsehoods recorded in 
this book. But it is better to give a true narrative, and 
bear the censure awarded by the reader, than to increase 
the guilt by omitting or misrepresenting facts. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 233 

guards. Shortly after, Wells, who had resumed 
his seat, said in a meditative tone : 

" Had he a coat ?" 

" I suppose so, sir," I returned, " or he would 
not have taken it." 

^' Where did he get it?" 

" Off the foot of that bed." 

Wells sprang to his feet as quickly as though 
he had been galvanized, kicking over the chair 
on which he had been sitting, and exclaimed : 

" My coat I sure as ! worth eighty dol- 
lars I The villain !" then pressing his head 
between his hands, sat down again, but, as if 
thinking better of it, ejaculated, *' Well, if that 
ain't a cool joke !" and burst into a loud laugh, 
which ended the scene. 

There are some facts connected with the Union 
sentiment in the South, which I would like to 
publish, if I dared ; but I cannot do it in full, for 
it might be the means of exposing persons who 
befriended us, to the vengeance of the tyrant 
rebels. I will only say that there exists in At- 
lanta a society of over four hundred members,* 
who are still devoted to the cause of union and 
liberty ; who endure in patient faith all the cruel 

* My impression of Southern feeling is very difierent 
from Vallandigham's. But the Union men were my 
friends. Were they his ? 

20* 



234 

persecutions heaped on them by the slavery- 
loving aristocrats who now rule their beautiful 
land. From members of this society many 
prisoners as well as myself, received money and 
other needed articles, which were of the greatest 
value to us. These were given at great risk to 
the donors, for there to give a Union soldier 
money is a serious criminal offence. One man 
I know was confined for four months on the 
mere suspicion of having aided the Shiloh pris- 
oners in this manner. 

Sweet potatoes were very abundant in At- 
lanta, and with the money Union friends sup- 
plied us, we bought a great many, roasting 
them in the ashes of the large fire-place that 
made our room so comfortable. They added 
materially to our rations, and rendered our 
living here more tolerable. In fact, had it not 
been for that universal Confederate pest, with 
which all, from the least to the greatest, seemed 
supplied — sometimes termed the '' rebel body 
guard" — and from which, for the want of clean 
clothes, no exertions of ours could free our- 
selves, we might have passed our time not un- 
pleasantly. 

We still continued our devotions in the 
morning and evening, and trust that God 
blessed them to us. We met with occasional 



THE GKEAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 235 

hindrances. Some of our own party seemed to 
consider that our release from the dark cells of 
a criminal prison did away with the necessity 
of continued prayer. The Confederates also 
annoyed us very much by interruptions, while 
thus engaged in seeking help from above. On 
these occasions, Wells was our friend. He de- 
clared that he could not stand praying him- 
self, and so invariably stayed away ; but that if 
it did us any good, we were welcome to it, and 
ought not to be disturbed. The opposition we 
met with was of short continuance. As soon 
as they found us firmly resolved on our own 
course, they did as all cavilers do in similar 
circumstances — let us alone. Thus even there 
we enjoyed many pleasant moments, which will 
ever be remembered as a green oasis in the 
parched desert of prison-life. 

While here, the Confederates wanted some 
of us to enlist in their army. They tried par- 
ticularly hard to get the regulars, Wells de- 
claring that he would rather have the two, than 
any half dozen of his own men. They pre- 
tended not to be unfavorable to the scheme, 
but delayed complying with it for a time, to 
see what the ultimate prospects of an exchange 
might be. 

The cartel of exchange had been agreed 



236 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR, 

upon long before ; yet these men, who had no 
charge against them, were still held. They be- 
lieved that it was because they were with us, 
and that the rebels feared to let them go, as 
they would most certainly convey to our gov- 
ernment intelligence as to our whereabouts, 
condition, and treatment. This view appeared 
still more probable, when I learned, since re- 
turning to Washington, that the Confederate 
government had officially denied hanging any 
of the party. They have never yet acknow- 
ledged it. 

The time wore wearily away here, as it had 
done before. The delay, since the death of our 
friends, had now been so long extended, that we 
began to believe that our lives might be spared. 
This conviction was strengthened as the months 
rolled on. 

At last a court-martial was convened — the 
first since the ever- memorable one at Knox- 
ville, and we awaited its action with the utmost 
anxiety. A week of sickening suspense passed 
by, and no summons came for us. Then the 
court adjourned, and we breathed freer. It 
now seemed probable that they did not intend 
to prosecute the feeble remnant of our party 
any further ; and, passing from the extreme of 
despair to that of hope, we began to indulge 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 237 

once more the blissful expectation of being per- 
mitted to revisit the scenes of our loved Norths 
and stand beneath the " old flag/' which we 
honored and reverenced as the embodiment of 
liberty with law — the emblem of the highest 
national life. But our time for freedom had 
not yet come. 

The weeks rolled on. Few things occurred 
worthy of note. That same monotony which 
makes prison-life so dreary, robs it of interest 
when recorded. We would rise in the morn- 
ing from our hard bed, and wash ourselves, 
pouring the water upon each others' hands, and 
eat our scanty breakfast ; then loll listlessly 
around, seeking in vain for anything which 
might relieve the almost unendurable tedium. 
When dinner came, which was of the same 
quality as the breakfast, we would eat it, and 
then try desperately to kill time until dark, 
when the gas was lit — not from any favor to us, 
but that the guard could watch us from the 
ever-open door, and see that we were working 
no plots to get out. 

This was the most cheerful hour of the day, 
for under the soft inspiration of the gaslight, 
conversation flowed more freely, and all the in- 
cidents of our past lives were rehearsed to 
attentive listeners. To vary the subject, an 



238 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

argament would be started on science, politics, 
or religion, and warmly discussed. When the 
talk would flag, which was frequently not till 
the midnight bells were striking in the town, we 
would offer up our devotions, and lie down to 
sleep, and often to indulge in the most delightful 
dreams of freedom, friends, and home. In the 
morning we waked again, and the same round 
was recommenced. Thus days glided into 
weeks, and weeks passed into months. The light 
golden hues of autumn deepened into the dead 
and sombre colors of early winter, and still we 
were in Atlanta. Our weak faith, judging what 
would be from what had been, could scarcely 
conceive that we would ever be anywhere else ! 
A heavy, dead indifference, like the lack of 
sensibility which the repeated infliction of pain 
produces in our physical natures, took possession 
of us. We almost ceased even to hope ! 

But at last there came a day of rejoicing. A 
number of oflicers visited the barracks, and 
inquired which was the room occupied by the 
Federal prisoners. On being shown around to 
our apartment, they told us to fall into line, 
and then said they had glad ncAVs for us. 

" You have all been exchanged, and all that 
now remains is for us to send you out of our 
territory." 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 239 

Tliey then came along the lines, arid shook 
hands with us, offering congratulations on the 
happy termination of our trials, and wishing us 
much joy on our arrival at home. 

Our feelings may be better imagined than de- 
scribed. There was an overwhelming rush of 
emotions which forbade utterance — happy joy — 
exhilarating, and yet mingled with a deep touch 
of sorrow, that our seven dead — murdered — 
comrades were not with us to share the joy of 
this unexpected release. And the eight also who 
had managed to get out of the clutches of the 
rebels by their own daring — we were uneasy 
about them. Only a day or two before, we had 
seen in an Atlanta paper, obtained, as usual, 
through a contraband source, an article clipped 
from the '^Cincinnati Commercial,'''' giving notice 
of the arrival of Porter and Wollam at Corinth, 
in a very wretched and famished condition. This 
was most gratifying to us, but of the others we 
had, as yet, received no reliable information. 
The Provost-marshal told us that three of them 
had been shot and left in the woods, but judging 
by the source, we considered the account very 
doubtful, and still cherished the hope that the 
whole story was a fabrication.* Thus we were 
in suspense as to their fate. But still, beyond 
* It was a malicious falsehood. All were safe. 



240 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

all t"his, tlie prospect of speedily gaining our 
liberty, was enough to make our hearts over- 
flow with gratitude to that Being who had so 
wonderfully preserved us through all our trials. 
I was so agitated that when Wells asked me to 
write a requisition for provisions for our jour- 
ney, I could not do it, and had to transfer the 
task to more steady hands. It was six in the 
morning when we received the news, and we 
were to start for " home — via Eichraond" — at 
seven in the evening. We spent the intervening 
time in arranging what clothes we had, and 
preparing for the journey. And as the time for 
departure drew near, we again lit the gas, and 
built a fire, the ruddy blaze of which was itself 
an emblem of cheerfulness, to take a farewell 
view of the room in which we had spent so 
many not altogether unhappy hours. Often 
afterward did we think of that bright hour of 
expectation, during the dreary lapse of suc- 
ceeding months, which we were still doomed to 
pass in the South. 

We had obtained quite a number of pieces 
of carpet, which served as blankets, but were 
forbidden to take these with us, being told that 
we would be run directly through, and would 
soon be where blankets were plenty. We how- 
ever managed to secrete two very small pieces, 



THE GKEAT EAILROAD ADVENTURE. 241 

wliicli were afterwards of great advantage 
to us. They did not tie us now for the first 
time in all our travels. This was truly remark- 
able, and afforded strong confirmation to our 
hopes. 

All was now in readiness for our departure, 
and we took a long, and, I trust, a last look at 
Atlanta — at least while it remains in rebel pos- 
session. The guards fell in on each side of us, 
and we wended our silent way along the dark 
streets. Wells, even drunker than usual, ac- 
companied us to the cars, where he hiccoughed 
an affectionate farewell. White, the sergeant 
who was with me when our spy escaped, com- 
manded our escort. He was one of the best- 
natured rebels I ever saw, and, like his supe- 
rior, did not care which side came out best, so 
long as he was not hurt. The guard was only 
ten in number, while we, including the Tennes- 
nesseeans, were twenty — a great falling off* in 
precaution from their former custom. 

We were crowded into rude box-cars, and 
soon began to suffer severely with the cold, for 
the night air was most piercing. It was the 3d 
of December, and we had only sr|.mmer cloth- 
ing, which was, in addition, very ragged. At 
about three o'clock in the morning we arrived 
21 



242 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

at Dalton. We were not to go througli Chat- 
tanooga. 

The stars were sparkling in light and frosty 
brilliancy when we stopped. The other train, 
on which we were to continue our journey; had 
not yet arrived, and the keen and icy wind cut 
almost through us. We stood shivering here, 
and suffering extremely from the cold, for some- 
thing like an hour, when, to our great relief, 
the expected train arrived. We were more 
comfortably fixed in it, and managed to doze 
away the time till daybreak. 

In the morning, we found that our three days 
rations, which were to last us to Kichmond, 
were scarcely enough for a breakfast. How- 
ever, we ate what we had, and trusted to buy- 
ing a few necessaries with the remaining money 
which our Union friends had given us. When 
that failed, we had still a sure resource that 
never failed — endurance of hunger. 

During the day, we discussed the question 
whether it would not be best, at nightfall, to 
try making our escape, as we were within forty 
miles of our own lines. It would be an easy 
task. The guards were perfectly careless, and 
at any time we could have had as many guns 
as they had. They sat on the same seats with 
US; and slept. Frequently those guarding the 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 243 

doors would fall asleep, and we would wake 
them as the corporal came around, thus saving 
them from punishment. The most complete 
security seemed to pervade them, utterly for- 
bidding the idea that they thought they were 
taking us onward for any other purpose than 
that of exchange. Once the sergeant laugh- 
ingly told us that we could escape if we wished, 
for we had the matter in our own hands ; but 
that he thought it would be more pleasant to 
ride on around, than to walk across on our own 
responsibility. This very security lulled our 
suspicions, and, combined with what the 
Marshal and other officers had told us in At- 
lanta, induced us to shrink from undertaking a 
journey, almost naked and barefoot as some of 
us were, over the mountains and in the snow, 
which now began to appear. 

In the afternoon, we passed the town of Knox- 
ville, now a place of loathing and hatred to us ; 
then the town of Greenville, which we noticed 
as being the residence of our heroic companion, 
Captain Fry ; then on into the lower part of 
Western Yirginia. It was nightfall when we 
entered this State, and a beautiful night it was. 
The moon shone over the pale, cold hills 
with a mellow, silver radiance, which made 
the whole landscape enchanting. On, on, we 



244 

glided, over liill and plain, at the dead of 
night, and saw, in the shifting scenery of the 
"unreal-looking panorama without, a represen- 
tation of the fleeting visions of life — like us, 
now lost in some dark, gloomy wood, or walled 
in by the encroaching mountain side, and now 
catching a magnificent view of undulating land- 
scapes, far away in the shadowy distance. 
Thus, through the silent night, we journeyed 
on, and morning dawned on us, still steaming 
through the romantic valleys of Virginia. 

The next day was a wet, dreary one. Our 
car leaked, our fire went out, and we were 
most thoroughly uncomfortable. The evening 
found us at the mountain city of Lynchburg, 
which is literally '' set on a hill." Here we dis- 
covered that we had missed the connection, and 
would have to wait for twenty-four hours. We 
were very sorry for this, as we were in a great 
hurry to get to our own lines, and had been 
talking all the way about what we should do 
when we arrived at Washington. But there was 
no help for it, and we marched up to the bar- 
racks with as good grace as possible. 

We here found a large, empty-looking room, 
with some of the refuse of the Confederate army 
in it. There was an immense stove in the cen- 
ter of the room, but, beinp: without fire, it was 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 245 

of no particular benefit. We resigned our- 
selves to another night of freezing, with the 
consoling thought that we would not have 
many more of such to endure. I paced tke 
floor till nearly morning, and witnessed a good 
many amusing incidents. Many of the Con- 
federates were quite drunk, and disposed to be 
mischievous. One of them diverted himself by 
walking about on the forms of those who 
were trying to sleep. Soon he came around to 
Bensinger. He endured the infliction patiently 
the first time ; but as the sot came again, Ben- 
singer was on the look-out, and, springing to 
his feet, gave him a blow that laid him out on 
the floor. Some of his companions rushed 
forward to resent the infliction; but, finding 
that nobody was frightened, they gave over. 

Here, in Virginia, I met the most spiteful 
and venomous secessionists I had yet seen. 

One of them — a prisoner — said that he had 
advocated raising the black flag, asserting that 
if it ''had been done at first, the war would 
have been over long since." 

"No doubt of it," I replied; ''the whole 
Southern race would have been exterminated 
long before this." 

This way of ending the war had not entered 
21* 



24:6 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

his mind, and tie became very indignant at the 
suggestion. 

All the next day was cold and gloomy. 
After noon, we succeeded in obtaining some 
wood for the big stove, with permission to 
make a fire in it, which was soon done, and a 
genial glow diffused over the whole room, in 
time to warm us before taking our departure 
for Richmond. 

We started a while before dark, seated in 
good, comfortable cars — the best we enjoyed on 
the route. But we only ran a short distance 
to a junction, where we were again to change 
cars. The next train had not yet arrived, and 
we built a large fire, as it still continued bitterly 
cold. We could easily have escaped, for the 
passengers mingled with us around the fire, 
and we even went to a considerable distance 
away to procure fuel. But so confident were 
we of a speedy exchange, that we did not 
make the effort, and the golden opportunity 
passed unimproved. Oh ! how greatly we after- 
ward regretted that we had not at least made 
the attempt. Soon the other train arrived, 
and a few hours placed us in Richmond — the 
goal to which every Union soldier is turning 
his eyes, though he would not wish to reach it 
in the manner we did. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 247 



CHAPTER Xy. 

Tlie City "by Moonlight — Old Accusation Renewed — Libby 
Prison — Discomfort — A Change — Citizens' Department 
— Richmond Breakfast— Removed under Guard — Castle 
Thunder— Miniature Bedlam — Conceal a Knife — Con- 
fined in a Stall — Dreadful Gloom — Routine of a Day — 
Suffering at Night — Friends Exchanged — Newspapers — 
Burnside — Pecuniary Perplexities — Captain Webster — 
Escape Prevented — Try Again on Christmas Night — 
Betrayed — Fearful Danger Avoided, 

It was still the same sparkling moonlight, 
and the same intense and piercing cold, that 
marked our journey the preceding night, when 
we left the cars, and entered the rebel capital. 

Everything looked grim and silent through 
the frosty air, and our teeth chattered fast and 
loud as we walked through a few squares of 
this now historic city. 

But suddenly the sergeant recollected that he 
did not know what to do with us, ard we were 
obliged to remain where we were, till he could 
find the Provost-Marshal's office, and get in- 
structions. We endeavored to shelter our- 
selves as best we could from the unbearable 
cold, which really threatened to prove fatal. 



248 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

We liad two blankets, or rather pieces of 
carpet, and we spread them over the heads of 
us all as we huddled together in a solid mass, 
in the angle of a brick wall. It was astonish- 
ing how much more comfortable this made us 
— especially in the inside of the pack^ where I 
happened to be. Here we remained shivering 
till the sergeant returned. He had found the 
Provost-Marshal's office, and proceeded to con- 
duct us thither. 

We marched through several of the prin- 
cipal streets, which, but for the moonlight, 
would have been entirely dark. At last we 
arrived at the office, which, to add to our dis- 
comfort, was destitute of fire. We stood in the 
empty room looking at the grim portraits of 
the rebel generals that stared at us from the 
walls, until the Marshal himself entered. He 
did not deign to speak to us, but opened a 
sealed letter which the sergeant handed him, 
and read that ten disloyal Tennesseeans, four 
prisoners of war, and six engine-thieves, were 
hereby forwarded to Eichmond, by order of 
General Beauregard. We had hoped that the 
title of thieves, of which we had become heart- 
ily tired, would now be left behind; but it 
seemed still to cling to us, and afforded an un- 
pleasant premonition of the Confederacy's 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 249 

not yet being done with ns. The Marshal 
then gave his orders, and we were again 
marched off. 

By this time it was daylight, December 7th, 
1862. Richmond looked still more cheerless by 
the cold beams of morning than it did before. 

We now threaded several tedious streets, and 
at last came to the James river, where we halted 
in front of a most desolate-looking, but very 
large brick building, situated on the bank, and 
surrounded by a formidable circle of guards. 
This building we very naturally took to be a 
prison, and soon learned that we were right. 
It was the famous Libby. We entered its pre- 
cincts, and were conducted up a flight of stairs, 
and then, on reaching the upper room, which 
was a vast, open one, we saw, almost for the 
first time since our capture, the old familiar 
United States uniform. We were soon in the 
midst of over a hundred Union soldiers. 

At first our greeting was not very warm, as 
we still wore the rebel rags that had served us 
all summer ; but as soon as our true character 
and history were made known, we were most 
cordially welcomed. There was a small stove — 
only one — in the cold, empty room, and part of 
the inmates were huddled around it. But with 
the characteristic courtesy and charity of the 



250 



American soldier, they soon cleared a place 
beside it for us. Then I had leisure to look 
around. 

The room was very large and bare ; the floor 
above was taken out, leaving it open to the roof. 
Beside this, the window sashes were all removed, 
and the cold wind whistled in from the river far 
more sharply than was consistent with comfort. 
The inmates informed me that they bad only a 
limited amount of fuel allowed them per day, 
and when that was exhausted, they had to en- 
dure the freezing as best they could. Even when 
the fire was burning, only about a dozen could 
get around it, and the room was too large and 
open to be warmed more than a few feet from 
the stove. Yet, with all these discomforts, we 
rejoiced to be here. It was the sure pledge that 
our foes had not been deceiving us in their pro- 
mises of an exchange, for these men, with whom 
we found ourselves, were actually going north- 
ward in the next truce-boat, which was daily 
expected. Our hearts beat high as we thought 
that, after drinking the bitter draught of bond- 
age and persecution for eight long months, we 
were at last to taste the sweets of liberty. What 
wonder if our joy was too deep for words, and 
we could only turn it over in our minds, and 
tremble lest it should prove too delightful to be 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 251 

realized ! What cared we for the cold that made 
our teeth chatter, and sent the icy chill to our 
very bones 1 It was only for the moment, and 
beyond that we painted the bright vision of 
freedom, with such vividness and warmth, that 
cold and privations were forgotten together. 
But our dream was short. 

We talked with our companions, and learned 
from them many interesting items of news. The 
worst we heard, and which, at first, we could 
hardly credit, was the existence of a large party 
in the North who were opposed to the war ; 
because, as my informant said, '^ They were 
afraid if the thing went on, they would be 
drafted, and would have to fight themselves." 
Oh ! how bitterly some of the prisoners, who 
were profanely inclined, cursed those who could 
oppose their government in such a time as this 1 
Not many of the soldiers sympathized with 
these traitors. They were still hopeful of suc- 
cess, and confident that the time would soon 
come when they would crush rebellion. 

But in the midst of our conversation, an officer 
entered, and called for the men who had just 
been admitted. Expecting to be paroled, as all 
the other prisoners in the room were, we at 
once responded. They conducted us down to 
the entrance hall, and called over our names. 



252 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

The four prisoners of war, and one of the Ten- 
nesseeans, were put on one side, and we on the 
other. The first party were then taken up 
stairs again, while we were put into an im- 
mense, but dark and low room, on the left of 
the stairway. 

This was an awful moment. We now felt 
that we had been deceived, and our hopes at 
once fell from the highest heaven, to which 
they had soared, down to perfect nothingness, 
and a cold sense of misery and despair came 
over us. To be thus separated from our friends, 
also, seemed like parting the sheep from the 
goats, and could only be for the purpose of 
punishment! No wonder that we looked at 
each other with pale, troubled countenances, 
and asked questions which none were prepared 
to solve. But only one moment were we thus 
crushed beneath this unexpected blow ; the 
next, we again sought an avenue for hope. 

Perhaps they did not recognize us as soldiers, 
and only wanted to exchange us as citizens — a 
matter of indifierence to us, provided we were 
exchanged at all. We looked around to see 
what foundation there might be for this pleas- 
ing conjecture. 

Our present apartment contained even more 
prisoners than the one up-stairs. They were 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 253 

men from all parts of the Soutli. Some of 
them had been in prison ever since the war 
broke out, and a few had been arrested for sup- 
posed anti-slavery principles, even before that 
event, and had lived in loathsome dungeons 
ever since. This would be called barbarous 
tyranny if it occurred in Italy ; but I have seen 
men, even in my own Ohio, who could see no 
wrong in it when practiced in the South, on 
supposed abolitionists. There were also some 
of our own soldiers here, who had been put in 
for attempting to escape. This survej^ was not 
calculated to increase our feeble hopes of a 
speedy exchange, or even to weaken our fears 
of further punishment. 

In the meantime, breakfast was brought in. 
It consisted of a small quantity of thin soup, 
and a very scanty allowance of bread. To our 
delight, the latter was made of flour, instead of 
corn meal; and all the time we remained in 
Eichmond, we received good bread, though 
often very deficient in quantity. 

While we were talking with our new room- 
mates, an ofl&cer again entered, and inquired 
for the fifteen men who had last come in. We 
answered quickly, for hope was again busy 
whispering in our hearts, and suggesting that 
there had been some mistake, which would now 
22 



254 

be rectified, and we taken up stairs again. But 
there was no such good fortune in store for us. 
We were taken out of doors, and there found a 
guard waiting to remove us to another prison. 
Again our hearts sank within us. 

We crossed the street, and halted at a deso- 
late-looking building, which we afterward 
learned was " Castle Thunder," the far-famed 
Bastile of the South. We were conducted 
through a guarded door into the reception- 
room, where we had to wait for some time. 
While here, a fierce-looking, black- whiskered 
man, who, I afterwards learned, was Chillis, the 
commissary of the prison, came in, and said : 

^' Bridge burners, are they ! They ought to 
be hung, every man of them ; and so ought 
every man that does anything against tbe Con- 
federacy." Had he said for, I would have 
agreed with him heartily. 

Soon the guide returned, and ordered us to 
be conducted up stairs. Up we went, passing 
by a room filled with a howling and yelling 
multitude, who made such an outrageous racket 
that I was compelled to put my hands to my 
ears. As we came in view, a score of voices 
screamed with all the energy their lungs could 
give: 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 255 

" Fresh fish ! Fresh fish !" The same excla- 
mation greeted every new arrival. 

We were taken into the office and searched, 
to see if we possessed anything contraband, or, 
in plainer terms, anything they could make 
useful to themselves. They took some nice 
pocket knives from the Tennesseeans, which 
they had contrived to keep secreted till now. 
When it came my turn, I managed to slip a 
large knife, that I had obtained at Atlanta, 
up my sleeve^, and by carefully turning my 
arm when they felt for concealed weapons, suc- 
ceeded in keeping it out of the way. 

The examination over, I thought they were 
going to put us into the miniature mad-house 
we had just passed; and they did not do much 
better, for they put us into a stall beside it. I 
call it a stall, for the word describes it most 
fully. It was one of a range, partitioned off' 
from the large room in which were the noisy 
miscreants, and from each other by loose plank, 
with cracks wide enough to let the wind circu- 
late freely through them. Most of the windows 
of the large room were out, which greatly 
increased the cold. Our stall was only eight or 
nine feet wide, and perhaps sixteen in length. 
It was bare of any furniture — not even having 
a chair, or any means of making a fire. 



256 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

In this clieerless place our party, six in num- 
ber, and nine Tennesseeans, were confined during 
the months of December and January ! 

The first day of our imprisonment here, our 
spirits sank lower than they had ever done 
before. All our bright hopes were dashed to 
the ground, and there seemed every reason to 
believe that we were doomed to this dreary 
abode for the remaining term of the war, even 
if we escaped sharing with our murdered friends 
the horrors of a Southern scaffold. It was too 
disheartening for philosophy, and that day was 
one of the blackest gloom. We seldom spoke, 
and when we did, it was to denounce our folly, 
in suffering ourselves to be deluded to Kich- 
mond by the lies they had told, and not seizing 
some of the many opportunities our journey 
afforded for making our escape. But it was no 
use lamenting ; and all we could do was to regis- 
ter a solemn vow never to be deceived by them 
again. When night came, we knelt in prayer to 
God, and if I ever prayed with fervor, it was in 
this hour of disappointment and dread. I tried 
to roll all my cares upon the Lord, and partly 
succeeded, rising from my knees comforted, and 
assured that whatever might be the issue, we 
had one Friend who was nigh to save, and had 
often made his children rejoice, in worse situa- 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 257 

tions than ours. The next morning I awoke 
again cheerful, and felt nerved for any fate that 
might befall me. 

Here the routine of prison life did not differ 
materially from that at Atlanta. We had to go 
down to the court (the building was square, and 
built with an open court in the center) to wash in 
the morning, and were immediately taken back 
to our stall, and locked up. But the principal 
difference was our want of fire. This made it 
our greatest difficulty to keep warm, and effec- 
tually destroyed all those pleasant fireside chats 
that had done so much to make our condition 
endurable in the Atlanta barracks. 

As the darkness and coldness of night drew 
on, we were compelled to pace the floor, trying 
to keep warm ; and when sleep became a neces- 
sity, we would ^1 pile down in a huddle, as 
pigs sometimes do, and spread over us the thin 
protection of our two bits of carpet. Thus we 
would lie until too cold to remain longer, and 
then arise and resume our walk. We had 
always plenty of light, except when the awk- 
wardness of the gas managers left the whole 
city in darkness, which was frequently the case. 

We never omitted our devotions. For awhile 
the deserters outside, who were composed of 
the very scum of Southern society, many of 
23* 



258 DARING AND SUFFERING ; OR 

tliem being the rowdies, gamblers, and cut- 
throats of the large cities, tried to interrupt us 
by every means in their power; but finding 
that their efforts produced no effect, they final- 
ly gave over, and left us to pursue our own 
way in peace. We found afterward, when, for 
a short time, we were put among them, that 
they respected us the more for it. Thus it will 
always be when perseverance is exercised in a 
good cause. 

A few days after our arrival, we noticed a 

. great stir among the prisoners at the Libby, 
which was plainly in view across the road, and 
but a short distance from us. We learned that 
a truce-boat had arrived. Soon a body of 
United States soldiers came up the street by 
us, and our five friends with them. As they 
passed our window, they waved their hands in 
farewell, and continued their journey. No 
doubt they were soon with their friends at 
home.* The parting was a hard one for us. 

^ It seemed so much like fulfilling the passage of ^ 
Scripture — '' One shall be taken and the other 
left," that we turned away from the window 

* A letter was received from one of them by my father 
a short time ago. He had not heard of our release, but 
described our parting, and gave a rumor which he had 
heard of our subsequent execution. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 259 

feeling again the gloom which darkened the 
first day of our arrival. We felt utterly de- 
serted and alone ; yet we were glad that some 
had been able to escape from the power of this 
accursed rebellion, "every throb of whose life 
is a crime against the very race to which we 
belong." 

In the dead sameness which now settled 
down again over our prison-life, we had a 
delightful daily oasis, in reading the news- 
papers. In Kichmond we were not, as else- 
where, debarred their perusal, and there was 
always some one who had money enough to 
buy them, and then charity enough to lend 
them all over the prison. In this way, we 
were enabled to see most of the dailies pub- 
lished. As soon as we received one, all the 
party would gather around, while I read the 
news and editorials aloud. 

The time of our arrival was an exciting one. 
Burnside had just made his celebrated advance, 
and as we read of his crossing the river, we 
breathed a prayer that he would be successful, 
and continue onward to Richmond. Had he 
done so, we would either have fallen into his 
hands or been removed. In the latter case, we 
would have made a desperate effort to escape, 



260 BAKING AND SUFFERING; OR 

for we had firmly resolved never to be moved 
again without making a strike for freedom. 

But soon came the sad news of his repulse — 
sad to us, but causing the greatest rejoicings 
among the rebels, who felt that they had 
escaped a great danger, and renewed the life 
of their tottering treason. 

We missed the books we were no longer able 
to borrow, and planned all kinds of means to 
obtain them. Among other expedients, I man- 
aged to sell my hat. It was a fine one, and had 
formerly belonged to Jack Wells ; but one day 
when he was drunk enough to be in a clever 
humor, he took mine, which was a very poor 
one, from me, and put his own on my head, 
saying that I looked better in that. No doubt 
he intended to trade back, but forgot it when 
we started away, and so left me in possession. 
I sold this hat for three dollars and a half, and 
bought another extremely poor one for half a 
dollar, leaving me three dollars of available 
funds ; which, added to five more afterward 
obtained from a Union man, made quite a for- 
tune. With this I tried to procure a book I 
wanted. I gave the money to the corporal 
who attended the prison, but he kept it several 
days, and then returned it to me. I next tried 
one of the officers of the prison, but met with 



THE GREAT BAILROAD ADVENTURE. 261 
no better success. Determined not to be baffled, 



I dropped the money through a crack in the 
floor to a lady prisoner below, who was allowed 
to go out in town, but in a few days she, too, 
sent it back, saying that the book was not in 
Eichmond. 

Still persevering, I wrote the names of 
several books on a slip of paper, and gave it to 
Chillis, the commissary, who wanted us hung 
when we first came, but who was, nevertheless, 
the kindest official of the prison ; he likewise 
returned it, saying that none of the books 
named were to be found. I then yielded, and 
reserved my money for the next best purpose 
to which it could be applied — to buy bread, 
which I often needed. We could at first get 
small cakes for ten cents apiece ; but they after- 
ward rose to fifteen. We had to take postage 
stamps in change, and, having no pocket-book 
to carry them in, they would often become 
torn and cracked, which rendered them worth- 
less. Thus we lost a considerable portion of 
our precious money. 

We soon became very restless and discon- 
tented here, and revolved desperate plans of 
escape. It seemed like a hopeless prospect, for 
we were in the third story, and could only 
escape by passing at each door through sue- 



262 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

cessive relays of guards, all of which had a 
reserve ready to cooperate with them in case 
of alarm. Our room was next to the jailor's 
office, and on the opposite side was a row of 
rooms containing all kinds of prisoners. The 
one next to us was occupied by a number of 
Federal soldiers— some charged with being 
spies, and others with murder. 

One of the latter was Captain Webster. He 
was a young and most handsome man, not over 
twenty-two years of age. He had, on one oc- 
casion, been sent to take a notorious guerilla 
captain, named Simpson, who was then hiding 
within our lines. When he was found, 
Webster summoned him to surrender. Instead 
of doing so he fired his pistol and started to 
run; but Webster also fired, and mortally 
wounded him. 

When Webster was subsequently taken 
prisoner, he was held for the murder of Simp- 
son, and confined in the room next to us. The 
charge I have repeatedly heard, not only from 
himself and fellow prisoners, but from the 
officers of the prison. Judge of my surprise, 
then, on reading, since my return home, of the 
hanging of Webster for violating his parole. 
This being a charge that the law of war would 
visit with death, the Confederates officially lied 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 263 

in substituting the one charge for the other, in 
order to justify themselves, and prevent retali- 
ation. 

Webster, too, was tired of confinement, and 
ready to risk all in a bold strike for freedom. 
The decision was soon made, and Christmas 
evening was the time fixed for the attempt. 
There were a number of citizens in the room 
below, who were in a more favorable situation 
for initiating the movement than we were. We 
had opened telegraphic communication, as we 
bad done before at Atlanta, and after full con- 
sultation, it was agreed to let these citizens 
give the signal. This was to be the cry of 
fire, and when it was heard, we were all to rush 
upon the guards, and overpower them. There 
were only about thirty guards in the building, 
and we had over a hundred and fifty men con- 
cerned in the plot. We were, tberefore, sure 
of success if every one performed his part — at 
least in getting out of the building, which was 
a less difficult task than leaving the city. 

On Christmas eve everything was in readi- 
ness with us, and most anxiously did we wait 
for the signal. The hours rolled slowly on, 
and midnight passed, but no signal was given. 
We afterward learned that the citizens below 
failed in courage when the decisive moment 



264 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR, 

came, and tlius defeated a plan which would, in 
all probability, have been successful, and would 
have startled rebeldom no little in thus bursting 
open their strongest prison. 

The next night we resolved to try once more. 
And that no faint-heartedness might now inter- 
fere, we appointed Webster our leader, knowing 
that he would not falter. Again we prepared. 
The locks of all the rooms were drawn except 
our own, which was so close to the guard that 
it could not be taken off without great danger 
of discovery. 

Some did not want to go, but were very kind to 
those of us who did, supplying us with serviceable 
shoes, and taking our worn-out ones in return. 
At last everything being in readiness, we again 
waited for the signal. Those in our room were 
to remain quiet till it was given, and then burst 
off the door, which was a light one, and rush on 
the guard. We took a board that supported the 
water-bucket, and four of us, holding it as a 
battering-ram, did not doubt our ability to dash 
the door into the middle of the large room, and 
seize the guard before he could make up his 
mind as to the nature of the assault. 

The other small rooms were soon vacated, 
the movement being concealed from the obser- 
vation of the guard, by the inmates of the large 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 265 

room, into which all the others opened, standing 
up around the doors. 

For an instant all was silence. We lifted up 
our hearts in prayer to God, that He would be 
with us, and preserve us through the coming 
strife, and if consistent with His high will, per- 
mit us to regain our liberty. 

What can cause the delay? Minute after 
minute passes, and the dead silence is only 
broken by the throbbing of our own hearts. 
We stand with the board ready, and our spirits 
eager for the coming contest, which shall lead 
us to grapple, with naked arms, the shining 
bayonets of the guards. We do not doubt the 
issue, for the hope of liberty inspires us. 

But now we see our friends creeping hack to 
their rooms ! We grind our teeth with rage 
and chagrin, but soon hear the explanation, 
which makes us think that the Lord is indeed 
watching over us. 

Just as our leader was ready to give the sig- 
nal, a friend pressed to his side, and informed 
him that we were betrayed, and that an extra 
guard of over eighty men was drawn up in line 
before the door, with orders to shoot down 
every one that issued from it, while still another 
detachment was ready to close in behind, and 
make an indiscriminate massacre. Had we 
28 



266 

attempted to carry out our plan, the guard would 
have yielded before us until we were drawn 
into the trap, and then they hoped to make such 
a slaughter as would be a perpetual warning to 
prison-breakers. 

When I first heard this story, I thought it 
the invention of some weak-nerved individual 
who feared the trial and the danger of our 
scheme. But it was true. The next day the 
Kichmond papers contained a full expose of the 
whole affair, and Captain Alexander, the tyrant 
who commanded the prison, threatened to have 
every one engaged in it tied up and whipped. 
But he finally concluded not to do so, and the 
excitement passed away. 



THE GKEAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 267 



CHAPTER XYI. 

Letter sent Home — Alarming Pestilence— Our Quarters 
Changed — Rowdyism — Fairy Stories — Judge Baxter — 
Satanic Strategy — Miller's History — An Exchange with a 
Dead Man— Eflfect of Democratic Victories — Attempt to 
Make us Work — Digging out of a Cell — Worse than the 
Inquisition — Unexpected Interference — List from "Yan- 
kee Land"— Clothing Stolen— Paroled — A Night of Joy — 
Torch-light March— On the Cars— The Boat— Reach 
Washington — Receive Medals, Money, and Promotion — 
Home. 

All of our party had repeatedly tried to send 
letters home to let our friends know that we were. 
still alive, but hitherto had failed. Now we had a 
providential opportunity. Some of the prisoners 
who were captured at the battle of Murfrees- 
boro' were brought to Richmond, and confined 
in the basement of our building. While they 
remained, I wrote a note with a pencil, on the 
fly-leaf of a book, and when taken down to 
wash in the morning, slipped around to the 
door of the Western prisoners, and gave it to 
an Irishman. He concealed it until he was ex- 
changed, and then mailed it to my father. It 
produced a great sensation among my friends, 
most of whom had long since given me up for 



268 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

dead. It was the first that had been heard of 
our party since the Atlanta escape, and was at 
once published in my county paper, and copied 
in many others. The following is the note : 

Richmond, Va., January 6th, 1863. 

Dear Father — I take the opportunitj of writing by a 
paroled prisoner, to let you know that I am well, and 
doing as well as could be expected under the circum- 
stances. I have seen some rather hard times, but the 
worst is past. Our lives are now safe, but we will be 
kept during the war, unless something lucky turns up 
for us. There are six of our original railroad party here 
yet. Seven were executed in June, and eight escaped in 
October. 

I stand the imprisonment pretty well. The worst of it 
is to hear of our men getting whipped so often. I hear 
all the news here ; read three or four papers a day. I 
even know that Bingham was beat in the last election, for 
which I am very sorry. 

The price of everything here is awful. It costs thirty 
cents to send a letter. This will account for my not writ- 
ing to all my friends. Give my sincere love to them, and 
tell them to write to me. 

You may write by leaving the letter unsealed, putting 
in nothing that will offend the Secesh, and directing to 
Castle Thunder, Richmond, Virginia. I want to know the 
private news — how many of my friends have fallen. 
Also tell who has been drafted in our neighborhood, who 
married, and who like to be. Also if you have a gold 
dollar at hand, slip it into the letter — not more, as it 
might tempt the Secesh to hook it. I have tried to send 
word through to you several times before, but there is 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 269 

now a better chance of communicating since we came from 
Atlanta to Richmond. Mother, (here referring to reli- 
gious experience.) * ^e * * * * * 
No doubt you all would like to see me again, but let 
us have patience ; many a better man than I am has suf- 
fered more, and many parents are mourning for their chil- 
dren without the hope of seeing them again. So keep 
your courage up, and do not be uneasy about me. Write 
as soon as you can, and tell all my friends to do the same. 

Ever yours, 

William Pittenger. 
To Thomas Pittenger, 

New Somerset, Jefferson county, Ohio. 

We remained in this prison, reading of the 
victories of Southern rebels, and the doings of 
Northern traitors, until the first of February. 
At that time they wanted our range of rooms for 
a hospital. This range was not adapted to the 
purpose, but was at least as good as the garret 
above, where all who went were sure of death. 

Disease was now making fearful havoc. 
The small-pox prevailed to a frightful extent, 
and the whole town was alarmed. Men were 
dying around us every day ; none of our party 
was infected, but many of the Tennesseeans 
were. It was no wonder that they found it 
necessary to extend their hospitals, for the 
treatment we received was well calculated to 
make the hardiest men sink beneath their 
trials. But these fearful ravages of pestilence 
23* 



270 DAKING AND SUFFERING; OR 

did at least the good of securing our removal 
from the pen in which we had been confined. 
At first we were taken to the bedlam I have 
described before ; and even this was better than 
the loneliness and ennui of our strict confine- 
ment. 

It seemed like freedom by contrast. We 
now had a fire also— a luxury which one who 
has been freezing for two months knows well 
how to appreciate. It is true it did not warm 
half the people around it, and these had not the 
courtesy of our brethern in the Libby ; yet it 
was a great thing to be occasionally warm. 

The amusements of our new friends were 
striking, if not elegant. When a dense crowd 
would gather round the fire, some mischievous 
Irishman would cry out, "Char-rge, me boys;" 
and, with his confederates, rush against the 
mass, knocking men in all directions, upsetting 
pots, skinning elbows, and spoiling tempers 
generally. Fights were of frequent occur- 
rence, and it only needed the addition of intox- 
icating liquor to constitute a perfect pande- 
monium. 

The evenings were a compensation. After 
the turmoil of the day was over, and most 
of those who had blankets had retired to 
rest, a party of the worst rowdies, who had 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 271 

been annoying us all day, would gather around 
the stove, and appear in a new character — that 
of story-tellers. I have spent the greater part 
of the night in listening to them, and have 
heard some of the finest fairy tales, and most 
romantic legends. But the approach of day 
put an end to all the romantic disposition of 
my companions, and left them ill ruffians as 
before. 

We soon wearied of this perpetual ferment, 
and petitioned to be put below in the room 
with the Union men. After some delay it was 
granted, and then came a more pleasant part 
of my prison life. The room was large, but 
dark, and the windows not only secured by 
crossing bars, but woven over with wires. The 
refuse tobacco-stems of the manufactory had 
been thrown in this room, till they covered the 
floor to a depth of several inches. 

But to compensate for these disagreeable 
accompaniments of our new apartment, it had a 
stove, and was warm ; so that the terrible suf- 
fering with the cold, which none can appreciate 
but those who have endured, was now at an 
end. There was also good society here — nearly 
a hundred Union men from different parts of 
the South — all intensely patriotic, and many of 
them possessing great intelligence. In talking 



272 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

with these men, and hearing their adventures 
and opinions, I passed many a pleasant hour, 
and gained a great insight into the views 
of Southern Unionists. 

One of these, who became an intimate friend, 
was a Scotchman, named Miller. When the war 
commenced, he was residing in Texas, and 
witnessed the manner in which that State was 
precipitated into secession. The first part of 
the plan was to excite rumors of a contemplated 
slave insurrection ; then the conspirators would 
place poison and weapons in certain localities, 
and find them, as if by accident. This was con- 
tinued till the public mind was in a perfect fer- 
ment. The next step was to take some slaves, 
and whip them until the torture made them con- 
fess their own guilt, and also implicate the lead- 
ing opponents of secession. This was enough. 
The slaves and Unionists were hung together on 
the nearest tree, and all opposition to the nefa- 
rious schemes brutally crushed. Thus has 
slavery furnished the means of paving the way 
to treason ! 

Miller himself was taken, and after narrowly 
escaping the fate of his friends, was sent east- 
ward to be tried as a traitor. He twice made 
his escape, once traveling over two hundred 
miles, and each time, when captured, telling a 



THE GREAT BAILBOAD ADVENT0RE. 



273 



different story. Finally, te representedliimse f 
as a citizen from New York. When brought 
before Judge Baxter, the magistrate of Castle 
Thunder, for examination, he merely said: 
"I told you all about my case before." 
The judge, who was considerably intoxicated, 
thou-ht that he had actually been examined 
befor°e, and dismissed him without farther ques- 
tionino-. He was brought up several times after 
that, but always gave them the same answer 
thus keeping them completely deceived, and 
was at length exchanged. 

I here became acquainted with a young man 
of the Potomac army, whom I shall call Char- 
lie He was employed to go near Richmond to 
fire abridge, and collect important information. 
While executing his perilous mission, he was 
captured, with papers in his possession fully 
proving his character as a spy, and ^as des- 
patched with a sergeant as escort, toward Rich- 
mond. While on the way, the sergeant, who 
was fond of liquor, got a chance to indulge, and 
V became very careless. Charlie, watching his 
opportunity, slipped from the breast pocket ot 
his guard the packet of papers containing his 
ohar..es, with the directions for his disposal, and 
threw them into a pond by the wayside. 

When he arrived at Richmond, the authori- 



27-i DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

ties did not know his character, and put him 
into the large room with the other prisoners, 
instead of confining him separately. When the 
evidence against him arrived, the commanding 
officer entered with a guard, and inquired for 
him. Now was his last chance for life, and well 
was it improved ! It so happened that a man 
had died in the prison the night before, and 
Charlie at once responded : 

" ! that fellovY died last night," and pointed 
to the corpse. 

" Died, has he ! the rascal ! We'd 'a hungr 
him this week, and saved him the trouble if he'd 
only held on !" growled the officer, and departed. 

Charlie was shortly after exchanged under the 
dead matiJs name ! 

Just when the discouragement of all lovers 
of their country was the greatest, resulting from 
the news of the rise and progress of the peace 
party in the North, a Tennessee Congressman 
visited our prison. He gathered the Tennes- 
seeans around him, and urged them to return 
to their allegiance ; stating that the Union cause 
was now hopeless, as it was abandoned even by 
the Northern States, which were in the hands 
of the Democrats, who would make peace 
on any terms ; closing by asking them now to 
do right, take the oath of allegiance to the Con- 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 275 

federacj, and go into its army, promising that 
all their previous obstinacy should be forgiven. 
The effect was wonderful ! Listen, ye who 
cavil at the government, and while opposing its 
policy, still think you do no harm ! These were 
loyal men, and had proved it by abandoning 
all for the cherished cause — many of them 
spending weary months in loathsome dungeons. 
Yet on hearing of the triumph of this faction, 
which promises to restore the Union by concili- 
ating and wooing back the rebels, over one-half 
of them yielded, and gave that consent which 
neither danger nor suffering had been able to 
force from them! Thus were over twenty 
recruits from one room of one prison, obtained 
for the rebel army by the triumphs of Northern 
Democracy 1 

A part remained faithful, and this excited the 
ire of the secessionists. To punish them. Captain 
Alexander issued an order that all the menial 
service of the prison should be performed by 
Union men. Some obeyed the order, while 
others would not. But those who did the 
work complained that unwilling ones were not 
made to help them. To remedy this, a list was 
prepared, and the names taken in order. One 
of the first called was a Tennesseean, named 
McCoy. He answered boldly : 

" I'm not going." 



276 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

" What's the matter, now ?" demanded the 
sergeant. 

" I did'nt come here to work ; and if jou can't 
board me without, you may send me home," 
replied the fearless man. 

'' Well ! well ! you'll be attended to," growled 
the sergeant, and proceeded with the roll. Four 
others likewise refused, and were reported to 
Captain Alexander, who at once ordered them 
to be put into '' the cell." This was a dark 
place beside the open court, and only about four 
feet wide, by six or seven in length. It had no 
floor but the damp earth, and was destitute of 
light. Here they were informed that they 
should remain until they agreed to work. 

We found another alternative for them. — 
There was a piece of file and a scrap of stove- 
pipe in our room, which we took, and buying 
a candle from the commissary, watched our op- 
portunity, when taken out to wash, to slip 
them into the cell. As soon as these neces- 
saries were received, the boys begun faithfully 
to dig their way out under the wall. All 
day and night they worked, but did not get 
through. The next day, we supplied them 
with another candle, and they labored on. 
Toward morning, they broke upward through 
the crust of the ground outside. The foremost 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 277 

one wormed his way ont, and glided off. He 
was never heard from, and no doubt reached 
the Union lines. The next man was just under 
the wall, when the barking of a dog, that hap- 
pened to be prowling around, drew the atten- 
tion of the guard that way, and prevented his 
escape. But though the stampede was thus 
arrested, it was a lesson that prevented the con- 
finement of any more in the cell. 

Yet they were not content to give up the 
idea of making us their servants. I happened 
to be on the next list prepared. This time the 
task was to dig in Captain Alexander's garden, 
which we would have been obliged to perform 
with an armed guard standing over us. 

Of course, we refused to go. As a punish- 
ment, we were ordered into the yard, which 
was only a vacant corner of the building, en- 
closed by high brick walls, on the top of which 
guards walked. It was a cold day in February, 
and was raining. We were nearly naked, 
having only the remnant of the rags that had 
already served for more than their time. The 
bottoms were out of my shoes, and the water 
stood in the yard several inches deep. The 
cold, wet wind, swept down with biting sharp- 
ness, and almost robbed us of sensation. We 
paced the narrow bounds, through the mud 
24 



278 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

and water, until too weary to walk any more, 
and then resigned ourselves to our misery! 

Here we remained from early in the morning 
till in the evening. They told us we would 
have to stay there till we agreed to work, or 
froze to death ! The first we resolved never 
to do. The latter was prevented by relief from 
an unexpected source. 

The old commissary, who had been so harsh 
to us when we first arrived, now went to Cap- 
tain Alexander, and remonstrated with him for 
his cruelty. 

Said he, " If you want to kill the men, and I 
know the rascals deserve it, do it at once. 
Hanging is the best way. But don't keep them 
there to die by inches, for it will disgrace us all 
over the world." 

This logic produced a good effect, and the 
order was given to send us back to our room, 
which, with its warm fire, never seemed more 
pleasant. It was well they did not keep us out 
during the night, for we had determined to 
scale the wall, if we lost half of our number in 
the attempt. 

The effects of that terrible day of freezing 
were soon visible. Oa entering the room, the 
grateful warmth produced a stupor from which 
most of us awoke, sick. Some died. I, myself, 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 279 

contracted a disease of the lungs, whicTi ren- 
dered me an invalid for months after regaining 
mj freedom. 

One day we were ordered into line, and the 
names of all onr railroad party, with a few of 
the others, called over. One, whose name was 
omitted, asked the reason of the omission. The 
officer answered : 

'^ We can't tell, for this list came from Yan- 
kee land." 

The mention of " Yankee land" started con- 
jectures afloat thick and fast. Why should a 
list be sent from the North ? Could it be for 
the purpose of exchange ? The whole prison 
was in a ferment. 

They soon discovered that a general exchange 
of political prisoners was in contemplation. 
This added fuel to the flames. But as the truce- 
boats went off" one after another, and week after 
week passed by, leaving us still in our dark and 
wearisome prison, hope again died away. Every 
person who ventured to speak of exchange was 
laughed into silence. 

One day an officer came into the room, and 
ordered a sergeant to take the name of every 
man who claimed United States protection, in 
order to obtain clothes for him. Soon the 



280 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

clothing came. It did not comprise a complete 
suit, but was extremely welcome. Kever did I 
see a peacock strut witli more ostentation than 
did some of the prisoners on donning the uni- 
form. And it was worthy of pride. It was a 
token that we were not forsaken, but that a 
great nation was extending its protection over 
us. The ragged guards around, clad in their 
miserable butternut suits, growled many uncom- 
plimentary allusions to the penuriousness of 
their own government, in contrast with the muni- 
ficence of ours. 

There were only about one hundred parts of 
suits distributed, though the papers, the next 
day, stated the number at jive hundred ! and 
this I afterward found was actually the number 
sent from Washington. The entire four hun- 
dred, and part of the last hundred, was kept by 
the officers as a compensation for their trouble 
in distributing them! But they certainly acted 
with more than their ordinary honesty in giving 
us any at all I 

On the evening of the 17th of March, when 
we were sitting around the fire, lazily, but not 
indifferently, discussing the seige of Yicksburg, 
and laying many infallible plans by which it 
might be at once reduced, an ofiicer entered, and 



THE GEEAT RAILKOAD ADVENTURE. 281 

gave the strange order for all " who wanted to 
go to the United States to come to the office I" 

"When I obeyed, it was with very little hope 
that there was really a chance once more to 
stand beneath the folds of our loved banner. 
Even when part of our room-mates had gone in, 
and signed the oath of parole, I feared that the 
good news was only for them. To test the mat- 
ter, I went forward, and as I gave my name, 
fully expected to hear — *^The engine-thieves 
can't go" — but no objection was made. For a 
moment a delicious hope thrilled through my 
veins — a vision of happiness and home, dazzling 
as a flash of summer lightning, shone before my 
eyes — but it instantly faded before the remem- 
brance of our Atlanta deception. 

It was announced that we were to start at 
four o'clock the next morning. The evening, 
as might be expected, was one of wild excite- 
ment. Nearly all acted like men bereft of rea- 
son. Their joyousness found vent in vociferous 
cheers — in dancing and bounding over the floor 
— in embracing each other, and pledging kind 
remembrances. But there were a few who 
were not permitted to go, and I pitied them. I 
remembered when we had been left by our 
comrades on our first arrival in Richmond, and 
my heart bled for these forsaken ones, as they 
24* 



282 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

sat cheerless and alone, seeming to feel even 
more wretched than ever, amid the general joy. 

It was near midnight before we became calm 
enough to offer up our usual evening devotions. 
But when all were at length still, wearied out 
bj the very excess of joy, and when the quiet- 
ness that ever follows overwhelming emotions 
had settled down upon us, we knelt in prayer 
— a prayer of deep, strong, fervent thankfulness ; 
and we implored that we might not be deceived 
in our bright and vivid hopes, and dashed back 
from our anticipated paradise; yet if such 
should be His high and mysterious will, and 
we should see these hopes fade, as others 
faded before them, we asked for strength to 
bear the trial. Thus composed, we laid down 
to sleep, and await the event. 

Few eyes closed during the entire night. 
Fancy was too busy peopling her fairy land- 
scapes — picturing the groups that awaited us be- 
yond that boundary which, for nearly a year, 
frowned before us, gloomy and impassable as the 
silent river of death ! But even as we muse, what 
unbidden fears spring up to darken the pros- 
pect, and stain the brightness of our joy 1 How 
many of those friends whose love was as our life, 
may be no more I For a year, not a whisper 
had been heard, and we trembled as we thought 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 283 

of the ravages of time and of battle. These 
and other thoughts whirled through our throb- 
bing brains during that ever-memorable night, 
and were only broken by the summons of the 
commanding officer, who, long ere morning light, 
gave the thrilling order to — prepare for our jour- 
ney ! 

Hurriedly we thronged to our feet. It was 
true I Freedom once more I Our terrible cap- 
tivity was passed ! joy 1 JOY I — almost too 
wild and delirious for earth ! 

There was a hurrying around in the dark- 
ness illumined by the flashing of torch -lights — 
a discordant calling of names — a careful in- 
spection to see that none went but those allowed ; 
then, forming two lines in the courtyard, and 
with bounding hearts, we passed outward through 
the dreaded portals of Castle Thunder — the 
same portals we had passed inward more than 
three months before ! passed out into the cool, 
but/ree night air! 

We next marched through the muddy, un- 
lighted streets for many squares. There were 
with us a number of sick, who were not willing 
to be left behind ; and as the rebels refused to 
provide conveyances, we helped them — encir- 
cling them in bur arms, and supporting their 
tottering steps during the weary distance. Some 



284: 

had to be carried altogether, but the burden was 
light, upborne; as we were, on the wings of hope 
and exultation. 

After we were seated in the cars, we found in 
some Eichmond papers the intelligence that " a 
large number of engine-thieves, bridge-burners, 
murderers, robbers, and traitors will leave this 
morning for the United States," also congratu- 
lating themselves on the riddance. Our con- 
gratulations were not less fervid 1 

We glided slowly along, passing fortifications 
and rifle-pits, till we arrived at Petersburg ; 
then onward to City Point, the place of general 
exchange. Here, for the first time in eleven 
months, we saw the '* flag of the free," floating 
in proud beauty from the truce-boat '^ State of 
Maine." It was a glad sight ! Her undulating 
stars were fairer to us than the brightest con- 
stellations that ever sparkled in the azure fields 
above. 

The grossest frauds are often practised by 
the unscrupulous secessionists in these ex- 
changes. I will give a case that occurred at 
this time. 

A rebel soldier was wounded in the head at the 
first battle of Manassas. It affected his brain, 
and disordered his intellect, so that even after 
he had recovered physically, he was mentally 



THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 285 

unable to perform the duties of a soldier. He 
was confined a short time in Castle Thunder, 
and then sent to Camp Lee, to try him again. 
But he was no better than before, and they gave 
up the attempt in despair. Then they exchanged 
him to us, and got a soimd man in his place ! 

When the boat rounded out from the shore 
on its homeward way, our joy knew no bounds. 
It seemed as if we had awakened from a hideous 
nightmare dream to find that all its shapes 
of horror and grinning fiends had passed away, 
and left us standing in the free sunlight once 
more. Our hearts beat glad music to the thresh 
of the wheels on the water, knowing that each 
ponderous stroke was placing a greater distance 
between us and our hated enemies. 

Then, too, the happy welcome with which we 
were greeted ; and the good cheer, so different 
from our miserable prison fare, and the kind 
faces, smiling all around, showed in living colors 
that we were freemen again. 

Down the river we went, passing the historic 
ground of the James, as in a delirious dream of 
rapture ! We were scarcely conscious of passing 
events. No emotion on earth has the same 
sweep and intensity as the wild, throbiaing sen- 
sations that rush thick and fast through the 
bosom of the liberated captive ! 



286 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

The Mebal— (reduced size.) On we went — reached 
the gunboats that ply np 
mmjim:^ and down the river, like 

giant sentinels, guarding 
the avenue to rebellion 
1 1 1 1 1 i i — reached the river's 

mouth, passed onward 
up the bay to Washing- 
ton I As we came in 
sight, we- thronged tu- 
multuously to the ves- 
sel's side, and bent eager, 
loving eyes on the snowy 
iV( I'M ^\ niarble front, and white 
towering steeple of our 
nation's Capitol. 

On our arrival, we 
were requested by the 
Reverse OF Medal. Secretary of War to 

give our depositions be- 
fore Hon. Joseph Holt, 
mi n I Judge Advocate Gene- 

j^ V ral, that the world at 

wiLimmTrmG^ i^^g*' '"'s'^' ^"""^ °'' 

^ompafijG^'B^ — *-^^ the surest foundation 

MoYd'/ 

the truth of our nar- 
rative. We were re- 
ceived by the Judge himself, and Major-Gene- 





THE GREAT RAILROAD ADVENTURE. 287 

ral Hitcticock, who was present, with the most 
marked cordiality. This interview was merely 
a friendly one, and was passed in familiar con- 
versation. 

On our second visit, we found a justice of tho 
peace in waiting to administer the necessary 
oath, and also a phonographer to write our tes- 
timony. We were examined separately, and 
the result published officially in the Army and 
Naval Gazette, and also in most of the news- 
papers of the day. 

We then called on the Secretary of War, ac- 
companied by our kind friends, Major-General 
Hitchcock and J. C. Wetmore, Ohio State 
Agent. Generals Sigel and Stahl, with many 
other distinguished personages, were in waiting, 
but we were given the preference, and at once 
admitted. 

The Secretary conversed with us most affably 
for some time. Then going into another room, 
he brought out six medals^ (see engraving — all 
are similar,) and presented them to us, saying 
that they were the first ever given to private 
soldiers. Jacob Parrott, the boy who endured 
the terrible beating, received, as he well deserved, 
the first one. 

lie next presented us with one hundred dol- 
Lu\3 each, and ordered all arrearages to be paid, 



288 DARING AND SUFFERING; OR 

and the money and the value of the arms taken 
from ns to be refunded. 

This was not all. He requested Governor 
Todd to promote each of us to first lieuten- 
ants in the Ohio troops ; and, if he failed to do 
so, promised to give us that grade in the regu- 
lar army. We then received furloughs to visit 
our homes, and left his presence profoundly 
convinced that '^ republics are" not always '' un- 
grateful." 

We were then escorted by our friends to the 
Executive mansion, and had a most pleasing 
interview with our noble President. His kind- 
ness was equal to that of the Secretary. After 
relating to him some incidents of prison expe- 
rience, and receiving his sympathizing com- 
ments, we took our leave. 

And now — safe in a land of freedom — with 
the consciousness of having performed our duty 
— surrounded by fathers and mothers, brothers 
and sisters, wives and children, who had long 
mourned us as dead — our dangers past, and our 
sufierings rewarded — I drop the vail. 

The End. 



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